I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Tesla in Sep 2017
Interview
Recruiter contacted me via LinkedIn. Submitted my resume.
1) Take home coding exam via codility - 2 hours
2) Phone Screen - mostly .Net related - 30mins
3) Phone Screen - coding (Algos and SQL) - 1hours
4) Onsite - 8 people - Boring - Mostly SQL - 8 hours. Apparently they don't have DB team I guess, so they asked me lot of SQL which I wasn't really prepared for.
The interviewers are from different team. They weren't sure what role I am interviewing for, so they asked me all sorts of questions (including obsolete web services).
Working over weekends and long hours is pretty norm and expect every one to do. They still run like start up. Different teams use different stack.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Mostly SQL, I assume all the interviewers were middleware and backend engineers.
3 45 min rounds virtual, mix of technical data structures and algorithms style questions and behavioral questions. Around leetcode medium difficulty, strings and array based. Short talk about what the team does.
Remembering the coding question about finding a peak element gives me a sense of relief. It was nearly the same as one I had practiced on PracHub a few days prior. The interview process began with a recruiter screening my resume, followed by a technical phone interview where we discussed data structures and algorithms. The onsite included two additional rounds focusing on coding and behavioral questions. Overall, the experience was straightforward, and I felt well-prepared, ultimately leading to an offer that I happily accepted.
2 Technical Coding Screen, followed by onsite. Interesting problems and role related. Friendly recruiting coordinator. On site - in person, several rounds, includes presentation and question & answers. Highly role related and based on past experiences.
Tesla interviews FAQs
Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Tesla with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 43% positive. To compare, the company-average is 55.1% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 34 days to get hired, when considering 149 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Tesla overall takes an average of 33 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Tesla as a Software Engineer according to 149 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 26%
One on one interview: 19%
Skills test: 15%
Presentation: 12%
Group panel interview: 9%
Background check: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Personality test: 4%
Other: 3%
Drug test: 2%
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