How I Failed My Netflix Interview

a year ago I interviewed at Netflix and absolutely embarrassed myself which obviously led to a rejection but a lot of you guys wanted to hear about that so let's talk about it now even though I didn't get the job I hope my experience can teach you guys on what not to do I learned a lot from it and I performed better on my other interviews after that and I hope it helps you guys out too now the first thing you guys probably want to know is how did someone like you even get to interview with Netflix well the answer to that question is I don't know huh huh what do you mean by that I honestly don't know how I got an interview I think it was just all luck Netflix is a big company so they probably let a lot of people interview but the way it started was like all jobs I just applied online I applied for the new grad position since I was in my last year of college at the time I didn't have a referral in my application I just filled it out and called it a day and surprisingly only one day passed and I get an email next steps with Netflix what a [ __ ] surpris when I applied I did it as a joke because in my mind I was like yeah Netflix is going to interview me that's funny you got the whole Squad laughing the company that only hired senior engineers at this point is going to interview some average Bozo like me that's hilarious now if you don't know how the software engineer interview process goes for a lot of companies it usually goes like this the first step is the initial application so you just send your resume blah blah blah the second step is an online assessment which is just a coding test on a platform similar to Le code from then if you do good on that you move on to a phone screen and this is usually a technical coding interview where you'll solve some question with an engineer at the company and if you do good on the phone screen you'll move on to What's called the on-site interview this usually consists of multiple interviews and it could be one or multiple coding interviews a system design interview and then a behavioral interview and if you pass all of those you get the job pretty easy right no now before some of you guys freak out and are like oh my God how am I going to get a job or an internship the process seems so difficult how am I going to do this or the smart people that are like well not every company does it like this some of them have it really easy well you're right the interview process all depends on the company some companies have it easier some companies have it harder it really just all depends but the process for Netflix at least for the new grad position which I applied for it went like this the first step was the application which I just did the Second Step is an online assessment the third step is a phone screen with a Netflix engineer and then the last part is the on-site which was three interviews a coding interview a system design interview and then a behavior interview the email I got was for the online assessment and I think it was just an automatic response to weed out applicants before they actually check resumes I had a few days to prepare before it expired so I spent some time doing some leode questions before attempting the assessment the assessment was done on a platform called code signal and the questions were very similar to what you'd see on leode the coding assessment had four questions that felt like Le code easys and mediums I only solv three of the questions a question about metries follow me up but I thought that was it because I've seen some posts online you know Reddit posts where people literally get a perfect score and get rejected so I was like well whatever wasn't expecting much anyways Netflix would not want me so a few weeks pass and I was just in bed scrolling on Tik Tok you know being lazy being a degenerate and I get an email from a Netflix recruiter saying hello from Netflix next steps I cannot believe the email I was in complete shock and disbelief now at this point in my opinion I've officially moved on to the interview process because they've checked my resume I've done the online assessment to weed out people when I passed and now you guys are probably wondering well what did your resume look like to move on well in my opinion my resume wasn't that impressive I had two small internships that weren't that impressive at least to a big company like Netflix and the personal projects I had at the time were very simple YouTube tutorial type of projects all of them were web development projects none of it was really unique I didn't stand out too much I think the projects I had were a social media clone a Blog website and then a simple crypto website where I just fetch data from an API I also didn't go to some fancy prestigious school like Harvard MIT or UCLA I went to an average State School like when I applied to jobs and I had to enter my school sometimes it wouldn't show up as an option and I had to select other so yeah I have no idea how I moved on now I was at the phone screen stage where I have to do an interview with the Netflix engineer so I set up the time for the interview and started the Le code grind I was on my [ __ ] David gogin type of grinding I was eating Le code for breakfast lunch and dinner I was [ __ ] overdosing on Le code Le code was running through my veins I dreamed about Le code had nightmares about Le code it was serious you could put me on a motivational video now I'm being dramatic here but I think I did around 50 to 7 5 Le code problems from when I got the email to the day of the interview I couldn't do much preparation because remember how I mentioned I had two small internships on my resume well I was in the middle of that second internship and I also had class and at the time I was taking computer vision and machine learning and if you seen the math in those classes know you're ugly yeah it's not something I could just skip on I probably would have failed those classes if I didn't pay attention but fast forward to the day of the interview I was so fing nervous I didn't have much interview experience and the thought of interviewing with a company like Netflix made it aund times worse I was sweating couldn't focus it was just bad man but the interview got started the interview was done online so I was in a zoom call with an engineer and we use code signal as the platform to write my code the interview started by introducing ourselves you know ask me about my experience my projects and all that and I think I was fumbling my words a bit too since I was so nervous but after that they asked the coding question the question was something you'd expect from leode and the most surprising thing about the question was that it was similar to one I've done on Le code so in my head I was just like thanking God I won't embarrass myself at least so I started off by explaining what I thought the problem was asking the interviewer agreed and said I was on the right track cool then I started to explain my Approach for the problem and the interviewer was once again agreeing with me confirming that I was on the right track and I was treating it like a pair programming session since that's what they said but I think it's [ __ ] for some companies because some of these interviews I swear they just want you to solve the problem anyways I explained made my Approach and now it was time to coat it up now here's where the problem start and my nerves completely took over you ever had that moment in school when you're doing an exam or a quiz and once it starts you just forget literally everything you learned yeah that happened to me during this interview now even though I explain my Approach ask some questions I just completely forgot how to code the nerves W my solution started with a hashmap and I chose python as my language for the interview because I'm a soy Dev and I want it really easy and in order to make a hashmap in Python you tend to use a dictionary or a dick the problem was I forgot how to use a dictionary so I basically forgot how to use my dick you know it happens to every developer's life where you just forget how to use your dick very unfortunate so I ended up stumbling on the most basic things with a dictionary and look at it from the interviewer's point of view right the person you're interviewing is someone who's done a few years of coding classes since it's a new grad position right they've passed the online assessment their resume was good enough to make it here but you're telling me they can't do a simple for Loop how the did they get here now unfortunately I spent all my time stumbling on the solution and then the interview ended just like that I just knew that was it it was just embarrassing man and the interviewer was nice and was just like it's all right man don't worry about it it happens to a lot of people and that was it the worst part about it was that literally the moment the interview ended I decided to finish implementing my solution with the same test case that I was given and I kid you not in about 5 minutes I coded it up without any issues it's like all the knowledge came seeping into my head and I was so mad now a few days past and I was just disappointed with myself like how could I mess up the easiest interview I probably could have ever gotten for Netflix I solved a similar question my Approach was correct how could I just forget how to code but I get an email from the Netflix recruiter and the email says congratulations you're moving on to the next steps and I was so excited I was so happy it was crazy man I'm just kidding I just got a rejection letter obviously he thought it was going to be a happy ending I'm not the main character here I was just a side character who finally died for the plot and even if I did move on I would have had to do a system design interview and if I did that interview I probably would have gotten banned from ever applying to Netflix again I never studied anything about system design so I had no idea what to do there so I probably got saved from embarrassing myself even more now while in the interview guide I got from Netflix they said they care about your problem solving but at the end of the day it's a coding test if you can't code it why should you pass now after this interview even though it was a fail I definitely learned a lot I learned how to control my nerves better made sure I knew my coding fundamentals and improved how I manage my time during the interview so here's my advice for you guys so that it doesn't happen to you too don't let your nerves take over I know it's really hard but really try your best don't spend a majority of your time just talking about the solution they're here to see you code now it's perfectly fine to talk while you're coding since it helps the interviewer see your approach while you're writing the code but don't just talk and don't just code try to do both of them my next piece of advice is try to get a solution it doesn't have to be optimal just try to get some type of solution and my last piece of advice of course don't forget how to use your dick it's just [Music] embarrassing

Channel: The Coding Sloth

Views: 459,594

Keywords: netflix, netflix interview questions, netflix interview questions and answers, software developer, software engineering, software engineer, interview, interview experience, job interview, interview fail, netflix interview experience, tech interview, coding interview, programming interview, interview preparation, interview tips, learn from failure, career advice, netflix jobs, netflix careers, netflix software engineer, career development, job hunting, personal experience

Id: cqrIJCJ3AsU

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 10 2023