I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at SpaceX (Hawthorne, CA) in Feb 2022
Interview
Applied online, contact by recruiter soon after. Asked about interests and getting a gauge for you as a person, also asked very basic first principle questions.
Next had technical phone interview with member of team, another member of team, and lastly hiring manager. Talked about project/ work experience, as well as brief technical questions to test my knowledge listed on resume.
Next had on site interview, brief tour of facility, followed by presentation of a difficult project lasting an hour that was half presentation, half questions. They stopped to ask questions during presentation as they really want to get into your though process, as well as proposed alternative solutions that you had to evaluate the effectiveness of.
Lastly had 6 one on one half hour interviews, they briefed after presentation as they all focused on asking different things. Varied from asking hypothetical questions, additional resume walks, how you work as a person, and physically bringing in parts with drawings to ask questions. They will grill you, so be confident and know your stuff. Received offer an hour after I left.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Described basic part with some features, asked me to walk him through taking raw stock to a final product, including machine choice, fixturing, tooling choice.
Phone screen with recruiter followed by two phone calls with engineers and then an on-site interview where you present a presentation on a topic of your choice. Also other technical interviews on site as well.
Got reached out to by a recruiter on LinkedIn. Setting up an interview time was easy. The first interview screening was basically describing your past experiences. The second interview is technical. Whole process took a week.
Technical interview, pretty simple beam questions. Interview with lead engineer was about different machining/bonding techniques. Not a bad process. The recruiter was pretty responsive. Did not get another interview after interview with lead.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If you applied a point load on a beam at the end, at which point does the beam experience the highest stress?