Type · Architecture
Design a system to recommend personalized content (shows, movies) to users on the ITVX platform. How would you handle the cold-start problem for new users or new content?
Enterprise · Software Engineer Interview Guide
Sign up to see ATSHeadquartered in United KingdomInterview language: English
How to Pass the ITV Software Engineer Interview in 2026
The ITV DNA (TL;DR)
ITV's interview process for digital roles heavily weights a candidate's ability to drive innovation within the context of their public service broadcasting remit and commercial goals. Interviewers often probe how you'd contribute to the growth of ITVX, specifically looking for examples where you've balanced user experience with advertising revenue objectives, demonstrating a 'metric-with-denominator' approach to impact.
The ITV Interview Loop
Your onsite loop will typically consist of 5 rounds.
- 1
Round 1
Recruiter ScreenMotivation, role fit, logistics. - 2
Round 2
Coding ScreenLeetCode-medium algorithmic problems under time pressure. - 3
Round 3
System DesignDistributed systems, trade-offs at scale, architecture under constraints. - 4
Round 4
Onsite CodingLeetCode-hard, debugging, code clarity, edge cases. - 5
Round 5
Behavioral / LeadershipPast evidence of ownership, influence, resolving conflict.
The Danger Zone: Top Reasons Candidates Fail
Based on our database of ITV interview outcomes, avoid these common traps:
- Choosing a push-based model that doesn't scale (e.g., polling).
- Incorrectly handling duplicate user IDs within the lists.
- Not defining clear data sources for recommendations (view history, ratings, etc.).
- Not handling overlapping intervals correctly.
Test Yourself: Real ITV Questions
Three real prompts pulled from our database.
Type · Debugging
A user reports that the video playback sometimes stutters and buffers excessively, especially during peak hours. Here's a simplified snippet of the playback logic. Identify potential issues and suggest fixes.
Type · Motivation
Why are you interested in working at ITV, and what specifically about our engineering challenges in the media streaming space excites you?
+ many more questions, signals, and worked examples
Sign up to unlock the full ITV grading rubric
ITV Interview Question Bank
A sample from our database, grouped by round. Sign up to see the full set.
9 of 14 questions shown
1
Recruiter Screen
1- 1
Type · Motivation
Why are you interested in working at ITV, and what specifically about our engineering challenges in the media streaming space excites you?
2
Coding Screen
3- 2
Type · Algorithm
Given a list of video stream start and end times for concurrent viewers, write a function to find the maximum number of concurrent viewers at any given point in time. Assume times are integers. - 3
Type · Data Structures
Implement a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache for storing recently watched video metadata. The cache should have a fixed capacity. When the cache is full and a new item is added, the least recently used item should be evicted. - + 1 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
3
System Design
3- 4
Type · Architecture
Design a real-time notification system for ITVX that alerts users when a new episode of their favorite show becomes available. Consider scalability for millions of users and potential spikes in activity. - 5
Type · Architecture
Design a content delivery network (CDN) strategy for ITV's video streaming service to ensure low latency and high availability across different geographic regions. What trade-offs would you consider? - + 1 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
4
Onsite Coding
4- 6
Type · Algorithm
Write a function to efficiently find the k-th most frequent video watched by users in a given time range. Handle ties appropriately. - 7
Type · Debugging
A user reports that the video playback sometimes stutters and buffers excessively, especially during peak hours. Here's a simplified snippet of the playback logic. Identify potential issues and suggest fixes. - + 2 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
5
Behavioral / Leadership
3- 8
Type · Conflict Resolution
At ITV, we often balance the user experience of high-quality streaming with the technical constraints of ad-insertion. Tell us about a time you had to reconcile a trade-off between an engineering performance requirement and a commercial product requirement. How did you negotiate the path forward? - 9
Type · Ownership
Our platform experiences massive spikes during live events or popular show releases. Describe a time you identified a latent bottleneck or stability risk in a production system that was not currently failing but could have impacted our ability to scale during a peak traffic event. What steps did you take to mitigate this? - + 1 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
Unlock all 14 ITV questions, free
No credit card. Every question with its framework, the grading signals interviewers score against, and a worked answer for each.
Interview tracks at ITV
How ITV's DNA translates across functions. Pick your role.
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Practice ITV interviews end-to-end
ITV Mock Interview
Run a live mock interview with our AI interviewer using ITV-style prompts. Get scored on structure, signal, and answer length - exactly how the real loop grades you.
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STAR Stories for ITV Behavioral Rounds
Build a Story Bank of your past wins, mapped to the leadership signals ITV interviewers grade on. Reuse them across every behavioral round.
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ITV Interview Prep Hub
The frameworks behind every ITV round: CIRCLES for product sense, hypothesis-driven debugging for analytical, STAR for behavioral. Learn each one in 10 minutes.
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Interview Frameworks
CIRCLES, STAR, AARRR, RICE, MECE. The exact frameworks that make ITV interviewers nod instead of frown. Step-by-step playbooks with the moves and the pitfalls.
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Sample answers
What a strong answer to these ITV interview questions shows.
Design a system to recommend personalized content (shows, movies) to users on the ITVX platform. How would you handle the cold-start problem for new users or new content?
A strong answer shows: Understanding of recommendation system algorithms (collaborative, content-based).; Strategies for handling cold-start scenarios.; Awareness of data requirements and feedback loops.; Consideration of evaluation metrics and A/B testing..
A user reports that the video playback sometimes stutters and buffers excessively, especially during peak hours. Here's a simplified snippet of the playback logic. Identify potential issues and suggest fixes.
A strong answer shows: Systematic debugging approach.; Understanding of video streaming protocols and challenges.; Ability to identify bottlenecks in complex systems.; Consideration of both client and server-side factors..
Frequently asked questions
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