- Companies
- Netflix
Netflix coding interview questions: the 15-problem sprint
Netflix coding rounds lean practical: caches, time-keyed stores, intervals and scheduling — the data structures behind a streaming platform — more than puzzle tricks. This sprint is every course problem tagged Netflix, 15 of them, in the order the course teaches the patterns.
What Netflix actually asks
Where the 15 Netflix-tagged problems sit in the curriculum — the topics with the most problems are the ones to be fluent in. Each bar opens the topic’s lessons.
+ 4 more topics with fewer problems each. By level: L1 Linear Structures & Patterns 5 · L3 Graphs 3 · L4 Paradigms & Dynamic Programming 2 · L6 Interview Mastery 1 · L7 Interview Bank 4
How the Netflix loop usually runs
Recruiter + technical screen
A recruiter conversation, then one or two technical screens: a coding problem in a shared editor, often framed around a realistic system component rather than an abstract puzzle.
Onsite / virtual onsite
Several technical rounds (coding, and system design for senior roles) plus interviews with managers and cross-functional partners that test fit with the famously candid Netflix culture memo.
What the coding rounds look like
Design-flavored data-structure problems are common: build an LRU cache, a time-based key-value store, a rate limiter; merge or schedule intervals; top-K questions. Clean, production-minded code matters.
What is judged
Working, well-structured code and clear trade-off reasoning — and, across the whole loop, whether you communicate with the directness the culture asks for.
General, widely reported patterns — recruiters share the exact format for your role and location, and it changes over time.
What the coding rounds lean on
- Hashing and design structures — LRU cache, time-keyed stores
- Intervals and scheduling (meeting rooms, merges)
- Sliding windows on strings and arrays
- Heaps and top-K
- Graphs — course ordering and shortest paths
- Binary search on the answer
The 3-day plan
All 15 problems in course order, about 5 a day. Each row opens the problem page; free ones show the full statement and editorial with no account. “Asked often” marks the problems reported most often.
Week 1Arrays & Strings · Hashing · Sorting & Binary Search · Intervals · Topological Sort & DAGs · +7
Day 1 · Arrays & Strings, Hashing, Sorting & Binary Search, Intervals
Day 2 · Topological Sort & DAGs, Shortest Paths, Backtracking, DP on Strings
Day 3 · Pattern Recognition, Strings, Arrays & Search, Design
Prepare in the language you will interview in
Any language. Java has deep roots at Netflix and Python is common in interviews; C++ and JavaScript are fine. Pick the one you are fastest in and use it for the whole sprint.
Choose a language at sign-up and every lesson, animation, code panel and editorial in the Netflix sprint follows it. You can switch later.
Netflix interview — questions people ask
Are these the actual Netflix interview questions?
No list of "the real questions" exists, and anyone selling one is guessing. These are the course problems that candidates have publicly reported being asked at Netflix — not an official list, and Netflix is not affiliated with dsacourse. Netflix rotates its questions; the patterns behind them do not change, and the sprint teaches the patterns.
Does Netflix hire early-career engineers?
For most of its history Netflix hired almost exclusively senior engineers; it has since added earlier-career levels, but the bar is widely reported to stay high at every level. The coding rounds draw on the same patterns either way.
How long does the Netflix sprint take?
The full sprint is 15 problems; at about five a day that is 3 days (3 days). Short on time? Do the free and high-frequency problems first — they are marked — then the topics with the most problems in the chart.
Which language should I use in the Netflix coding interview?
Whichever you are fastest in — Netflix does not score the choice. Every problem in this sprint has a worked editorial in Python, Java, C++ and JavaScript, so you can prepare start to finish in the language you will actually interview in.
What is free?
1 problems in this sprint are free with the full statement and editorial, and a free 7-day trial opens the starter topics. Full access opens all 15, the timed mock sets and the certificate.
Other company sprints
Company tags reflect where candidates have publicly reported being asked these problems — they are not official lists, and no company named here is affiliated with or endorses dsacourse. Difficulty ratings are our own.