Tesla

Mechanical Engineering Intern Interview Experience

August 1, 2019

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I had two interviews.

The first was a personality interview, essentially a screening. The second was more technical, but it didn't involve hard numbers or problem-solving.

Both interviewers made me feel very comfortable. They started by saying they would rather treat the interview as a "chat" than a formal interview.

The second interview was designed more to gauge my thought process and how I approached the engineering design process.

Questions

If you were to design any of the personal projects you've done in your past as a product to be sold to a specific end-user, how would you go about redesigning your project to meet their needs?

Was this helpful?

Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 23 interview experiences for the Tesla Mechanical Engineering Intern role in United States.

Success Rate

22%

Pass Rate

Tesla's interview process for their Mechanical Engineering Intern roles in the United States is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive57%

Neutral26%

Negative17%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Tesla's Mechanical Engineering Intern interview process in United States.

Tesla Work Experiences

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Current Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 18, 2020

Pros: - Work is interesting and exciting - Fast-paced - Smart teams

Cons: - Pay - Can work very long hours

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Current Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 18, 2020

Pros: - Work is interesting and exciting - Fast-paced - Smart teams

Cons: - Pay - Can work very long hours

Good Work, Awesome Colleagues

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 17, 2025

Pros: Good work, awesome colleagues, good pay.

Cons: Lunch is kinda expensive for being provided by the company.

Good Work, Awesome Colleagues

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 17, 2025

Pros: Good work, awesome colleagues, good pay.

Cons: Lunch is kinda expensive for being provided by the company.

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 19, 2022

Pros: You work with very smart and dedicated engineers on some pretty cool projects. Interns are given high expectations and often perform similar tasks to those of full-time engineers. Tesla provided a one-time $2.8K relocation stipend and paid for flights to and from my university.

Cons: Some teams may expect you to work overtime, although overtime pay is pretty good. There is always more work that needs to be done, which results in little downtime. Parking is terrible at Fremont and Deer Creek. I would advise biking or walking if you can.

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 19, 2022

Pros: You work with very smart and dedicated engineers on some pretty cool projects. Interns are given high expectations and often perform similar tasks to those of full-time engineers. Tesla provided a one-time $2.8K relocation stipend and paid for flights to and from my university.

Cons: Some teams may expect you to work overtime, although overtime pay is pretty good. There is always more work that needs to be done, which results in little downtime. Parking is terrible at Fremont and Deer Creek. I would advise biking or walking if you can.

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Current Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 18, 2020

Pros: - Work is interesting and exciting - Fast-paced - Smart teams

Cons: - Pay - Can work very long hours

5.0
Mechanical Engineering Intern
Mechanical Engineering Intern • Current Employee
Palo Alto, California, United States
November 18, 2020
Pros: - Work is interesting and exciting - Fast-paced - Smart teams
Cons: - Pay - Can work very long hours

Good Work, Awesome Colleagues

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 17, 2025

Pros: Good work, awesome colleagues, good pay.

Cons: Lunch is kinda expensive for being provided by the company.

4.0
Good Work, Awesome Colleagues
Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee
Palo Alto, California, United States
November 17, 2025
Pros: Good work, awesome colleagues, good pay.
Cons: Lunch is kinda expensive for being provided by the company.

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

November 19, 2022

Pros: You work with very smart and dedicated engineers on some pretty cool projects. Interns are given high expectations and often perform similar tasks to those of full-time engineers. Tesla provided a one-time $2.8K relocation stipend and paid for flights to and from my university.

Cons: Some teams may expect you to work overtime, although overtime pay is pretty good. There is always more work that needs to be done, which results in little downtime. Parking is terrible at Fremont and Deer Creek. I would advise biking or walking if you can.

4.0
Mechanical Engineering Intern
Mechanical Engineering Intern • Former Employee
Palo Alto, California, United States
November 19, 2022
Pros: You work with very smart and dedicated engineers on some pretty cool projects. Interns are given high expectations and often perform similar tasks to those of full-time engineers. Tesla provided a one-time $2.8K relocation stipend and paid for flights to and from my university.
Cons: Some teams may expect you to work overtime, although overtime pay is pretty good. There is always more work that needs to be done, which results in little downtime. Parking is terrible at Fremont and Deer Creek. I would advise biking or walking if you can.

Tesla Interview Questions

Course Schedule

Determine if it is possible to finish all courses given prerequisite relationships between them. Essentially, detect if a cycle exists in the course dependencies.

GraphsRecursion

Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

Find the length of the longest substring within a given string that contains no repeating characters. The substring must be contiguous.

StringsTwo PointersSliding Windows

Minimum Changes To Make Alternating Binary String

Determine the fewest modifications needed to transform a binary string into an alternating pattern (e.g., "0101" or "1010"). You can change '0' to '1' or '1' to '0'.

Copyright © Taro