PracHub
QuestionsPremiumCoachesLearningGuidesInterview Prep
|Home/System Design/Netflix

Design homepage viewport rendering with deduplication

Last updated: Apr 23, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates system architecture and backend–client design competencies, including viewport-based fetching, cross-module deduplication, pagination/continuation tokens, caching and storage strategies, personalization and experimentation integration, and observability for low-latency, high-QPS services in the System Design domain.

  • medium
  • Netflix
  • System Design
  • Software Engineer

Design homepage viewport rendering with deduplication

Company: Netflix

Role: Software Engineer

Category: System Design

Difficulty: medium

Interview Round: Technical Screen

Design the backend + client interaction to support **viewport rendering** for a streaming service’s home page (rows of videos/tiles). ### Scenario - The home page is personalized and contains multiple “modules” (rows) such as “Continue Watching”, “Trending”, “Because you watched X”, etc. - The UI renders only what is currently visible in the user’s viewport and fetches more as the user scrolls. ### Requirements 1. **Viewport-based rendering:** efficiently fetch and render only visible items, and fetch additional items incrementally as the user scrolls. 2. **No duplicates on the page:** ensure that across all modules currently shown (and as the user scrolls), the user does **not see the same video/title twice**. 3. **Performance:** low latency suitable for a home page; support very high QPS. 4. **Personalization and experimentation:** support A/B tests and different ranking strategies. 5. **Observability:** be able to measure duplicates, latency, and engagement. Explain APIs, data flow, storage/caching, deduplication strategy, pagination/continuation tokens, and how you handle edge cases (e.g., content removed mid-scroll, retries, personalization model updates).

Quick Answer: This question evaluates system architecture and backend–client design competencies, including viewport-based fetching, cross-module deduplication, pagination/continuation tokens, caching and storage strategies, personalization and experimentation integration, and observability for low-latency, high-QPS services in the System Design domain.

Related Interview Questions

  • Design Ad Frequency and Order Tracking - Netflix
  • Design Rolling-Window Ad Frequency Capping - Netflix (medium)
  • Design ad frequency capping - Netflix (medium)
  • Design a File Backup System - Netflix (hard)
  • Design an Ad Pacing System - Netflix (hard)
Netflix logo
Netflix
Mar 1, 2026, 12:00 AM
Software Engineer
Technical Screen
System Design
24
0
Loading...

Design the backend + client interaction to support viewport rendering for a streaming service’s home page (rows of videos/tiles).

Scenario

  • The home page is personalized and contains multiple “modules” (rows) such as “Continue Watching”, “Trending”, “Because you watched X”, etc.
  • The UI renders only what is currently visible in the user’s viewport and fetches more as the user scrolls.

Requirements

  1. Viewport-based rendering: efficiently fetch and render only visible items, and fetch additional items incrementally as the user scrolls.
  2. No duplicates on the page: ensure that across all modules currently shown (and as the user scrolls), the user does not see the same video/title twice .
  3. Performance: low latency suitable for a home page; support very high QPS.
  4. Personalization and experimentation: support A/B tests and different ranking strategies.
  5. Observability: be able to measure duplicates, latency, and engagement.

Explain APIs, data flow, storage/caching, deduplication strategy, pagination/continuation tokens, and how you handle edge cases (e.g., content removed mid-scroll, retries, personalization model updates).

Solution

Show

Submit Your Answer to Earn 20XP

Sign in to leave a comment

Loading comments...

Browse More Questions

More System Design•More Netflix•More Software Engineer•Netflix Software Engineer•Netflix System Design•Software Engineer System Design
PracHub

Master your tech interviews with 8,000+ real questions from top companies.

Product

  • Questions
  • Learning Tracks
  • Interview Guides
  • Resources
  • Premium
  • For Universities
  • Student Access

Browse

  • By Company
  • By Role
  • By Category
  • Topic Hubs
  • SQL Questions
  • Compare Platforms
  • Discord Community

Support

  • support@prachub.com
  • (916) 541-4762

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • About Us

© 2026 PracHub. All rights reserved.