SpaceX Software Engineer Full-Time Coding Challenge and Virtual Onsite

Role: Software Engineer
Result: Offer declined by the candidate
Report time: January 2021
Application channel: College or university application
Experience rating: Positive
Difficulty: Average

Interview process

1. Initial phone screen.
2. Coding challenge.
3. Behavioral interview.
4. Virtual-onsite case-study presentation.
5. Six technical or behavioral one-on-one interviews, each lasting 30 minutes.

Reported coding question

Given an array of length n containing positive integers from 1 through n - 1, find a pair of duplicate numbers.

The report does not say whether exactly one distinct value repeats, whether several values may repeat, or whether “pair” means the repeated value, two equal values, or their indices.

Reported case study

The virtual-onsite case study required coding and an analysis of the benefits and costs of the candidate's proposed solution. The report does not identify the system, business problem, inputs, requested change, expected implementation, or deliverable, so the case study cannot be reconstructed more precisely without inventing content.

Reported behavioral question

The candidate was asked to describe a time when the candidate personally failed and explain the experience.

The corresponding FastPrep coding exercise is Find the Duplicate Number. That practice version states additional assumptions needed for a deterministic judged problem; the assumptions were not disclosed in the interview report.