Top Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions

Online streaming has become an important part of everyone’s lives. If you want to see behind the scenes and work for one of these companies, Hulu might be a good fit. Hulu is a premium streaming service that is co-owned by Disney.

As a member of the company’s engineering team, you’ll see firsthand how streaming platforms work and what goes into making them run smoothly. We have compiled a list of Hulu software engineering interview questions to assist you in preparing for the interview.

If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation e-book to get interview-ready!

Having trained over 11,000 software engineers, we know what it takes to crack the most challenging tech interviews. Our alums consistently land offers from FAANG+ companies. The highest ever offer received by an IK alum is a whopping $1.267 Million!

At IK, you get the unique opportunity to learn from expert instructors who are hiring managers and tech leads at Google, Facebook, Apple, and other top Silicon Valley tech companies.

Want to nail your next tech interview? Sign up for our FREE Webinar.

In this article, we’ll be covering:

• An Overview of Hulu
• Role and Responsibilities of a Hulu Software Engineer
• Technical Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions
• Behavioral Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions
• FAQs on Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions

An Overview of Hulu

Co-owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox, and NBC Universal, Hulu is an online video streaming service. Since it is a part of Disney’s Media and Entertainment Distribution division, it is the only service that offers its users current shows from every major US broadcast network.

These networks include ABC, NBC, FX, and Hulu original programming. The service was launched in October 2007.

Role and Responsibilities of a Hulu Software Engineer

Hulu software engineers are responsible for improving the platform and delivering a dynamic experience to its users. If you’re passionate about creating well-suited systems for scalability, security, and reliability, this might be the perfect role for you.

As a Hulu software engineer, your responsibilities will include:

• Building and developing large-scale, real-time, dependable, and globally available platforms.
• Creating robust and scalable microservices as well as data pipelines.
• End-to-end ownership of backend services, from ideation, review design to launch, and monitor performance.
• Working with other team members (including product owners, TPMs, and other business units) to meet product and business requirements.
• Use a mix of technologies, including Java, Python, Kafka, Redis, MySQL, Flink, Spark, AWS, etc.

Technical Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions

When preparing for your tech interview, ensure that you go over these Hulu software engineering interview questions as well as the concepts they’re based on:

1. Merge two sorted linked lists and return them as a new list. Make sure that the new list should be made by splicing together the nodes of the first two lists and should also be sorted.
2. How does Insertion Sort work?
3. How would you optimize Bubble Sort?
4. Explain how you would design a URL shortening service like Goo.gl or Bit.Ly?
5. How would you go about creating your own Instagram?
6. Design an ATM.
7. Given: An integer array.

Find: A triplet with the maximum product.

8. Given an array of coins having different denominations and an integer sum representing the total money, return the fewest coins required to make up that sum; if it’s not possible to construct that sum, then return -1.
9. How would you design Hulu functionality to limit the number of streams across devices?
10. What type of algorithm would you use to design Facebook’s newsfeed?
11. Given a binary tree, print the top view of it. Assume the left and right child of a node makes a 45–degree angle with the parent.
12. Write a hangman AI solver in 6 hours.
13. Find the lower bound of a given number in a sorted array.
14. How would you design a JS function, given a namespace in the format “abc.def.hij” and creates the namespace such that abc.def.hij === {}
15. Implement an LRU cache.
16. How would you convert an XML file into a tree, assuming the file has been parsed, and you have the iterator to get the next node?
17. Given: An array of integers.

Find: The smallest k that through +/- at most k for each element, the array can be changed to a strictly increasing array.

18. How would you write a program that plays word search?
19. Given: A list of employees and their bosses as a CSV file.

Write: A function that will print out a hierarchy tree of the employees.

20. What is the most efficient way to traverse through a given tree structure?

Note: Implementing an LRU cache is one of the most popular Hulu software engineering interview questions.

Behavioral Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions

Hulu interviews include behavioral questions to determine your ability to deal with difficult situations and make decisions at work. You can expect these behavioral Hulu software engineering interview questions:

1. According to you, why do you think people are still paying for cable TV?
2. How has streaming changed the way content is consumed these days?
3. Can you name one effective method for driving audience engagement in the streaming industry?
4. Tell me about the most important advancement in streaming technology in the past year.
5. We always try to be the first in everything that we do. How do you stay ahead in the latest television trends?
6. We’re a pretty competitive company and always strive to be one step ahead of our competitors. How will you continue this trend?
7. What is your technical specialty?
8. According to you, which is the most influential form of media nowadays?
9. How does Hulu compete with Amazon Prime Video?
10. Would you violate Hulu policy to make a customer happy if you had to?
11. Tell me about your favorite show on Hulu currently.
12. Why would a consumer choose Hulu over other companies offering video streaming services?
13. Have you ever had to contact Hulu’s customer service? If yes, how was the experience?
14. We are always on the lookout for highly ambitious people. Where would you like your career with Hulu to take you?
15. As this role is pretty technical, can you explain your understanding and what it entails?

FAQs on Hulu Software Engineering Interview Questions

Q1. How long does it take to get hired at Hulu?

On average, the Hulu hiring process takes around 23 days. This is based on the reviews written by people on glassdoor.com across different job titles at the company.

Q2. Does Hulu pay well?

The salary range at Hulu ranges from around $55,554 a year for an Ad Trafficker to $259,830 a year for a senior software engineer on average.

Q3. What are some Hulu software engineering interview questions asked in behavioral rounds?

Some questions are — Why do you want to work at Hulu? What interests you about this position? Looking at our products and services, what do you think we do better at Hulu than our competitors?

Q4. What is the average salary of a software engineer at Hulu?

A software engineer at Hulu makes around $166,750 per year. This includes a base salary of $131,000 with a $35,750 bonus.

Q5. How to get hired at Hulu?

To get hired at Hulu as a software engineer, you’ll need to have a BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent work experience. When preparing for the company’s interview process, ensure that you prepare questions based on algorithms, data structures, and system design.

Want to Crack the Hulu Software Engineer Interview?

If you’re looking for guidance as you prepare for the Hulu software engineering interview questions, sign up for our free webinar.

Interview Kickstart offers interview preparation courses taught by FAANG tech leads and seasoned hiring managers. We have trained thousands of software engineers to crack the most challenging interviews at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and other top tech companies.

Register for our FREE webinar to learn more!

‍