I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at SpaceX (Hawthorne, CA) in Aug 2021
Interview
Basic process for a first-round interview.
1. Tell us about your projects and experience and why you want to work for SpaceX.
2. Technical questions from fundamentals of mechanics of materials (especially cantilever beam problems under bending and torsion), some ideal gas law thermodynamics situations and some fluids problems regarding buoyancy.
3. Questions about the company and the position if you have any.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Where is a cantilever beam most likely to fail from a point load at the free end?
2. What is the most efficient cross - section to resist torsion and why?
3. What is stress? What is strain? How are they related?
4. If you put a balloon in a freezer, what would happen to it and why?
I went through the first interview round. It was a 30 min phone call with mostly behavioral and some technical questions. Going through resume and elaborating on flagship project. Practice technical questions that would be similar for the next round interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
From your resume, what would you say is your flagship project?
Interview with recruiter then two rounds with hiring manager and someone on the team. Then a final panel round full day with a bunch of people, project presentation and 1-1 interviews.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Cantilever beam question - ideal cross section under different loading conditions
I had an interview which was a 30 Minute phone call with a recruiter of the technical variety, which was as expected of a first round interview. Then, I had conducted a second interview, this time of the 45 minute variety.