Netflix Interview Questions: The Culture Memo, Values and How to Answer (2026)

The short answer: Netflix interviews lean heavily on its culture memo. Interviewers want evidence that you thrive with freedom and responsibility, give and take candid feedback, use judgment without heavy process, and perform at a level where a manager would fight to keep you (the keeper test). Read the memo before your interview, prepare stories that show its valued behaviors, and be ready to give honest, specific feedback about your own work. Technical and functional rounds depend on the role. Below is what the memo says, the questions it leads to, and sample answers.

What the culture memo says

Netflix’s culture page sets out its expectations directly:

• The dream team: “We aim only to have high performers at Netflix — people who are great at what they do, and even better at working together.”
• The keeper test: managers ask, “If X wanted to leave, would I fight to keep them?”
• Candor: “constructive feedback is part of our everyday work (like brushing your teeth).”
• Freedom and responsibility: “It takes an unusually responsible person to thrive on this level of freedom — someone who’s self-motivated, self-aware and self-disciplined.”
• Context, not control: managers give “their teams the context and clarity needed to make good decisions.”
• Highly aligned, loosely coupled: teams can “move quickly and operate independently.”

The memo lists valued behaviors including selflessness, judgment, candor, creativity, courage, inclusion, curiosity and resilience. Read the full memo on Netflix’s site; interviewers often refer to it.

Culture questions to prepare for

Candor and feedback

• Tell me about the most difficult feedback you’ve given a colleague.
• Tell me about feedback you received that changed how you work. See how do you handle criticism.
• What would your last manager say you need to improve?

Judgment and independence

• Tell me about a decision you made without your manager’s sign-off. How did it turn out?
• Tell me about a time you had to act with incomplete information. See limited data decisions.
• When have you chosen not to follow a process, and why?

Courage and selflessness

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a senior leader.
• Tell me about a time you put the team’s success ahead of your own.

Curiosity, creativity and resilience

• What’s something you’ve learned recently outside your job?
• Tell me about a bet you took that failed. See tell me about a time you failed.

Sample answers

Illustrations, not quotes from real candidates. Use your own stories.

“Tell me about the most difficult feedback you’ve given a colleague.”

“A peer on my team kept presenting shared analysis in leadership meetings without crediting the two analysts who did most of the work. I asked him for a coffee and told him directly, with two specific examples, that it was hurting the analysts’ visibility and the team’s trust in him. He was defensive at first, then admitted he hadn’t noticed. In the next review, he named the analysts and let one present. It made me more comfortable giving feedback early instead of letting it build up.”

“Tell me about a decision you made without your manager’s sign-off.”

“My manager was traveling when a vendor offered a discount if we signed within two days. I had the context: the budget, our usage forecast, and my manager’s priorities from our last planning meeting. I wrote a one-page summary of the trade-offs, signed the one-year deal within my approval limit, and sent my manager the summary immediately. We saved 22% on the tool, and my manager later asked me to use the same approach for other renewals.”

How to prepare

1. Read the culture memo carefully and note which behaviors match your experience.
2. Prepare six to eight stories with real stakes, using the STAR method.
3. Be ready to be candid about yourself: weaknesses, mistakes and feedback. Rehearsed, polished answers can sound less credible here.
4. Prepare for the role-specific rounds: coding and system design for engineers, case or portfolio discussions for other roles.
5. Prepare your own questions about how the team applies the memo in practice. See questions to ask the interviewer.

For a broader guide to values questions, see what are your core values.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Netflix Jobs, Netflix Culture. Read on 1 October 2026.