I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at Tesla (Palo Alto, CA) in Oct 2021
Interview
General Timeline:
The whole process takes around 4 months.
Late October: Referral from Tesla employee
November: 1st and 2nd round with team member & manager (~1hr each)
Early December: Engineering Exam (90 min, PE-exam level questions)
Late January: Panel Interview (Supposedly 5 hrs, 30min presentation + 2 ppl + break + 3 ppl, halted during the break)
It takes a couple of weeks to get an email back to schedule the engineering exam and panel interview. Was told in the middle of the panel interview that some team members are no longer available and the recruiter would get back to reschedule for some other time. Never heard back from anyone since then and I presume they're not moving on.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A lot of hardcore engineering questions. They are very difficult but very practical too. It is a great pleasure to talk with all the engineers and managers in the process since they are really passionate and talented people. However, the interview process is extremely lacking of communication and overly lengthy.
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Tesla in Dec 2021
Interview
Process took a little over a month.
Recruiter contacted me and setup call with hiring manager. Phone screening with hiring manager, which lasted for around 30 minutes. Questions were mainly on my background and the projects I had worked on.
I was then asked to give a mechanical aptitude test, which tested basic engineering knowledge. A few weeks after that I got an email from the recruiter saying they had decided to go with someone more suited to the role.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Tesla (Fremont, CA) in Jan 2022
Interview
Straightforward interview, asked a series of questions about basic physics, mechanics and general engineering knowledge. Questions were very technical in natures and a mix of manufacturing vs basic engineering test questions. Friendly interview process and answered any questions I had honestly.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Two cylinders rolling down a ramp, compare hollow vs solid