Lengthy. Applied online, waited two months, then started reaching out to 2nd-degree LinkedIn connections. Once I finally managed to get the interview process started, it took another three months to get an offer. There were three phone interview rounds. First with a recruiter, then with a potential co-worker, then with my potential boss. After passing all three, I got a take-home assignment which took me about 50 hours of work over the course of a week. It was a project very similar to the work that would be done if I got the position. Finally, I was brought on-site for the final interview round. I got a brief tour of the facility in Hawthorne, then had to present on some of my past work, then had a long series of technical interviews for the rest of the day. Even after passing that, there was a background check, a reference check, and finally I had to write an executive summary of my top technical accomplishments, to be finally approved by Elon himself. My advice: stay patient and be persistent.

For Initial phone interview: asked about why you applied/liked the company. Then rapid fire technical questions that were generally very basic. Some time for questions about the role and to describe a project that you worked on in the past.