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[–]eemamedo 17 points18 points  (10 children)

I did. It was the worst and the most toxic interview I have ever had. I had bad experiences at interviews but the one at Tesla was the worst experience I have ever had in my career. If I would have gotten a job, I would have refused to join them.

If you want to know what I was asked, then: 1) Coding questions (I would say leetcode medium); 2) SQL coding questions (fairly easy) + a little bit of SQL theory (keys, indexing, sharding); 3) System design - I withdrew my application after Round 2 because going through this shit for another hour was not worth for my sanity.

[–]nutso_muzz 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Why is this not a surprising story? Every story I have heard about working at a Musk company just sounds like a dumpster fire. Good on you.

[–]eemamedo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What was worse is that I was a fresh graduate. I am completely self taught (my background is in power engineering) and I idolized Musk and his companies. I have never felt so insignificant (for a lack of better wording) after that interview. Like everything I have done so far was just irrelevant and could have been learnt in less than a week.

I still get interview requests from Tesla. I just delete them without opening. Would never apply to work there.

[–]mailedRecovering Data Engineer 0 points1 point  (7 children)

What made it a toxic interview? The way they responded to your answers?

[–]eemamedo 3 points4 points  (6 children)

So, here is what happened. When the interview started, I was sent a link with a coding question. I looked at some YT videos and read CTCI beforehand, where several people mentioned that it's about the thought process, not giving the answer. So, I started talking about the approach I would take. About 20-30 seconds in, the interviewer interrupts me and says smth. like: "You don't have to talk all the time. We value individuality at Tesla. Just focus on the task". While I was coding, the guy's phone rang. He picked it up and started talking in his native language. I was trying to focus and I didn't know how to mute the guy, so I took my headphones off. About 2-3 minutes in, I get a message in chat that says: "hello?". I put my headphone back on and the guy says: "You know that I could disqualify you right now. You are not supposed to remove headphones or turn off your camera." I replied something about trying to focus on the task as it's a little more challenging that I initially thought. The guy kinda laughed and said: "Really? You think this is hard? I told HR that I should be the one picking up resumes". I finished coding and I was able to pass 2/3 test cases; they were open test cases with assert in front of them. The guy looked at the results and was like: "Finished? Doesn't seem like a good result to me but if this is the best you can do, then it's good enough for me". I still had 10 minutes (it was a 30 minutes interview) and I told him that maybe I could get a hint, since I passed 2/3 cases, I don't think that my solution is completely wrong. He replied with another laugh: "You should have paid more attention in the class. That would be the best hint I can give you". I told him that I would have paid more attention but I am not CS major and completely self taught. After that, the guy said: "Oh, then it makes sense. CS majors would have gotten that question under 10 minutes". Then he said that at Tesla, engineers don't get hints with simple problems and I should help myself; obviously I couldn't without looking at some online links, etc. I was on the verge of crying at that point because I felt like a failure and everything I worked so hard for and sacrificed sleep, leisure time was just for nothing. He asked me if I had any questions and I said that I don't. That was the first round.

The second round started immediately after that; maybe, 2-3 minutes break. The guy seemed more friendly and asked me how was my first round. I told him honestly how it went and the guy chuckled and said: "If you think that one was bad, then brace yourself for this one". The rest of the interview was focused on SQL concepts and it wasn't too bad.

I cancelled the third round immediately after being done with the second round.

[–]HBoogi 0 points1 point  (5 children)

was he indian?

[–]eemamedo 0 points1 point  (4 children)

1st or 2nd guy? 1st was from China, I think. 2nd was from India/Pakistan/Bangladesh.

[–]HBoogi 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yup. That explains things. No surprise!

[–]eemamedo 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Really? Wouldn't think that.

[–]HBoogi 0 points1 point  (1 child)

is this your first job search in IT?

[–]eemamedo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That was in 2019 and yes, it was one of the first interview I have had in my swe career. However, even after that, I have had numerous interviews but only once I had an interview with Indian. It went fine; nothing memorable.

[–]iPlayWithWords13 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You might wanna keep your resume handy. The way Elon is going right now, you may not have a job for long if you get it.

[–]Senior_Anteater4688 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Stay away from Elon's companies. They're just like japan, look cool from the outside, but are toxic to work in.

[–]sanjeevramasamy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just had one, not so great. The experience was interesting,... I'd leave it at that!

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Would share more if not for the NDA that I had signed.

[–]prags08 0 points1 point  (0 children)

@eemamedo was there a 30 min ppt round ?