The main cast along with creator Sam Esmail went to hacking seminars in preparation for their roles. In addition, Rami Malek had a typing instructor to prepare scenes involving programming.
In the first season, actor Rami Malek (Elliot) used crushed vitamin B pills for scenes where he sniffs morphine, and used a special device hidden in his sleeve to vacuum the powder. He also allegedly used it to prank people off-set by lining up extraordinarily long lines of powder and "sniffing" them.
Creator Sam Esmail made this show after being disappointed with the poor portrayal of computer hacking.
Every episode name in Season 2 ends in an "encrypted file" format. Whereas every episode in Season 1 uses a "video file" format.