diff --git a/.bazelignore b/.bazelignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..211ea0c2102
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.bazelignore
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# examples has its own WORKSPACE. Ignore as part of this root WORKSPACE so that
+# we don't need to repeat dependencies.
+examples/