I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Tesla (Reno, NV) in Jan 2024
Interview
Start by having a conversation with the recruiter to set the stage. Next, participate in a phone screening interview with an engineer, where you will tackle a Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) question to assess your technical skills. If successful, you'll move onto the virtual onsite phase. This stage includes a 30-minute presentation, showcasing your abilities or a project you've worked on, followed by a series of four interviews, each lasting between 45 minutes to an hour. These interviews will cover a variety of topics, including system design, further DSA questions to evaluate your problem-solving capabilities, and behavioral questions to understand your work ethic, team collaboration skills, and how you handle challenges.
Had a quick chat on the phone with a rep for maybe 15-20 mins. Discussed a bit about the role and how to take the coding challenge. They had a coding challenge with 3 puzzles. The puzzles were quite difficult.
I made it to the final round of the interview process for a software engineering role. I successfully completed all of the technical questions and challenges (albeit w/some minor hiccups), and even demonstrated some knowledge beyond the interviewers. For the most part, everyone was fairly nice throughout, although I was a bit surprised by the seniority of some of the interviewers. After the final interview, I thought everything went very well. I then waited more than two weeks until the recruiter finally responded and told me that the team decided to pass. It wasn't a horrible experience, but it definitely felt like my time was wasted, especially since they initially reached out to me.