I applied online. The process took 6 weeks.

Four rounds total:

• Recruiter screen
• Hiring manager call
• Technical member call
• A 3-4 hour on-site with a presentation and one-on-ones with 5-6 people

First three rounds were 30 minutes each and what you'd expect.

Questions in the hiring manager and technical rounds were pulled from a question bank. The kind you find on Glassdoor or hardwareinterviews.fyi. Nothing original.

The company has a strong Tesla/SpaceX/Anduril aesthetic. The interview format, the culture, the way people present themselves. It reads as imitation and cosplay rather than the real thing.

The on-site was poorly run. I waited 10 minutes in the lobby before anyone came to get me. The office is a single open room, roughly 600-800 square feet, no dividers, desks and monitors packed nearly wall to wall.

My presentation was supposed to be a panel of five. Three people were absent. One showed up late. The one-on-ones were not coordinated. Twice, someone came to reclaim the conference room mid-interview and we had to relocate. Two interviewers arrived late with no acknowledgment. I received the same solid mechanics questions in separate sessions. Nobody compared notes beforehand.

The technical questions were delivered as a checklist. Right or wrong, minimal follow-up, no real back and forth. The format existed because that's how Tesla/SpaceX/Anduril interview, not because anyone thought carefully about what they were trying to learn.

One interviewer was worth noting positively. The only person there who had actually worked at a company in that space. He asked blended behavioral + technical questions and seemed interested in the conversation. He was the exception.

One interviewer wore a SpaceX shirt. I asked if he had worked there. He had not.

The process did not reflect well on the company. The disorganization, the lack of preparation, the time wasted across a 3-4 hour day - none of it signals a team that is operating at the level they believe they are.

GD&T

• What is cylindricity?
• What is runout?
• What is the difference between LMC and MMC?
• When would you use MMC versus LMC?
• What is a composite positional tolerance?

Failure Analysis

• How do you conduct a failure analysis?
• An FMEA is a type of failure analysis - how do you conduct one?
• How do you test for sensitivity in variables?
• How do you conduct a design of experiment?

Beam Bending

• You have a point load at the free end of a cantilevered beam - draw the shear and moment diagrams.
• How do you minimize deflection?
• Now the same beam is an L bracket mounted to a wall with four screws.
• How do you size and choose the length of your screws?
• Where does failure occur?
• What are the failure modes?
• How do you minimize failure within the bracket?

Pressure Vessels

• What stresses occur within a pressurized vessel?
• What is hoop stress?
• What is longitudinal stress?
• How would you mitigate these stresses?
• Which is higher - longitudinal stress or hoop stress?

Manufacturing

• What is the difference between a machined part and a cast part and when would you choose one over the other?
• What tolerances are achievable with CNC machining versus sheet metal fabrication?
• What is springback and how do you account for it in sheet metal design?
• Walk me through how you would design a part for manufacturability.
• What are the design constraints of an injection molded part?
• What is the difference between MIG and TIG welding and when would you use each?

Materials

• What is the difference between 6061 and 7075 aluminum?
• When would you choose titanium over aluminum?
• What is the difference between yield strength and ultimate tensile strength?
• What is fatigue and how does it differ from static failure?
• How does galvanic corrosion occur and how do you prevent it in a mixed-metal assembly?
• What is the significance of a material's coefficient of thermal expansion in a structural assembly?

Systems Engineering

• How do you define and manage requirements on a hardware program?
• What is the difference between a functional requirement and a performance requirement?
• How do you handle a requirement conflict between subsystems?
• Walk me through how you would develop a verification and validation plan.
• What is an interface control document and when is it used?
• How do you manage margin at the system level?

Brain Teasers

• You are stranded in the desert and your car breaks down.
• One wheel has lost all its lug nuts.
• You need all four wheels to drive out.
• How do you use the lug nuts from the remaining wheels to get all four wheels on the car?