I was interviewed for Netflix for a Senior Software Engineer position in Los Gatos, California.

The first round was with the recruiter, covering basic behavioral questions. The recruiter had really good technical knowledge and was able to answer most of my project-related questions.

They then set up a call with the hiring manager for a week later. The hiring manager round was also technical and lasted for 40 minutes (the manager joined 10 minutes late). It included basic questions about my background, interest in the role, and project descriptions.

I received a take-home project to be written in any JVM-based programming language I preferred.

I was able to complete the task in 4 hours and submitted it. I did not attach the driver program to execute the code; however, I did attach some test cases and a ReadMe file.

The manager set up a code review session after a couple of days and rejected me within the next four minutes. The rejection was for not having a proper package structure for the source and test files, and for not having a driver file. Not a single line of code was reviewed.

It is sad that I was rejected because of not having a proper package structure. In any other company, people primarily focus on the logic and not the ceremonies of the code. I was disappointed with this interview process.

Always include the driver script/program and follow the package structure. Time does not matter.

Why Netflix?

What interests you in this position?