Tesla | Backend SWE | Fremont, CA| Nov [Reject]

I have four years of experience as a Software Engineer. I interviewed for a Backend SWE position at Tesla in Fremont, California. The interview process began with a 30-minute recruiter call where we discussed my background and expectations for the role. I then completed an online assessment on Codility, which included two programming questions and one SQL question.

The first programming question involved finding the minimum number of characters to delete from a string so that each character appears a unique number of times. For example, "aaaabbbb" -> deleting one "a" or one "b" would make "a" and "b" appear a unique number of times.

The second programming question involved a binary number. If the number is even, you can divide it by two. If it is odd, you can subtract one from it. You can repeat these steps as many times as you want to reach zero. The question asked how many steps it took to reach zero.

The third question was a SQL question that involved selecting records from two tables using joins.

A few days after completing the assessment, the recruiter contacted me to say they wanted to move forward. However, I was then handed off to another recruiter who works for a team in Seattle. I was asked to come onsite in Fremont with some video interviews with folks in Seattle.

The onsite interview consisted of five rounds. The first round was a chat with a Product Manager, which focused on team fit questions. The second round was a lunch interview. The third round was a technical round that involved a data modeling question. The fourth round was a chat with a manager, which also focused on team fit questions. The fifth round was a technical round where the interviewer seemed tired and asked me some simple string manipulation questions. The interview ended 15 minutes early. At that point, I knew I was not going to get the job.

Due to an NDA, I cannot share any specific questions. However, overall, the interview was not very difficult.