Data Engineer · Phone Screen · Multiple Types

Netflix — Data Engineer

Level: Senior-Level

Round: Phone Screen · Type: Multiple Types · Difficulty: 5/10 · Duration: 60 min · Interviewer: Very Unfriendly

Topics: SQL, Data Pipelines, Data Engineering, Sorting

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Interview date: 2026-01-18

Summary

This was a 60-minute phone screen. I was asked SQL questions related to measuring the success of a new movie launch, followed by questions about data pipelines and data engineering considerations.

Details

I applied online and was contacted by HR the next day to schedule an interview.

For the first 30 minutes, I was given three SQL problems related to measuring the success of a new movie launch on Netflix. I needed to design a pipeline and identify the necessary tables and metrics to track. The questions involved GROUP BY, SUM, and CTEs. The interviewer interrupted me frequently, even for minor errors or logic that I planned to fix later, which made me feel stressed.

Next, I spent 10-15 minutes discussing data pipelines and general Data Engineering concepts. I was asked about considerations for putting the pipeline into production, such as data checks, partition keys, and data skew. The pace was very fast, with one question following immediately after another. The questions were common ones if you have experience building pipelines.

In the final 10 minutes, I received a coding question of easy difficulty. I was given a user-movie event stream and asked to classify movies based on the percentage watched (e.g., 30%, 50%, 80%). I struggled to remember how to use lambda to sort by value and return the key, but the interviewer said they understood my approach, and the interview ended.

Neither the SQL nor the coding problems required execution; they were primarily whiteboard exercises. Overall, the interview experience was not positive due to the constant interruptions.