Key takeaways
Tesla's two-page PDF, Preparing for Your Interview, gives no round count, no stage list, and no timeline. It names five questions to prepare, says interviewers may value a compelling thought process more than a correct answer, and warns that interviewers might ask vague questions on purpose. For the sequence of your own process, ask your recruiter.
What questions does Tesla ask in interviews?
Under "Before the Interview," alongside the advice to review the job description and update your resume, Tesla lists questions to consider your answers to in advance.
- "What makes you the most qualified candidate for the role?"
- "What's the most difficult challenge you ever faced?"
- "What has been your proudest achievement?"
- "When have you solved a problem with limited resources?"
- "Why do you want to work at Tesla?"
The fourth is the one to spend real time on. "When have you solved a problem with limited resources" selects for people who shipped something without the budget, headcount, or tooling they wanted.
A story like this is easy to tell badly by leading with the outcome and skipping the constraint. The constraint is the question. What you didn't have, what you did instead, and what it cost.
How should you answer "Why do you want to work at Tesla?"
The same prep guide answers part of that question for you. Under "Before the Interview," Tesla tells candidates to "emphasize your commitment to a sustainable future" and to highlight their "understanding of our products, purpose and impact, and your desire to join the mission."
That one bullet carries four things to cover. A commitment to a sustainable future. An understanding of what Tesla actually sells and builds. A sense of its purpose and impact. And a desire to join the mission.
Our advice on top of that is to avoid generic enthusiasm. "I've always admired Tesla" tells an interviewer nothing they can score. A stronger answer ties one product or project to a problem you've worked on, and says what you'd bring to it. The guide also asks candidates to elaborate on "your individual responsibilities and contributions" in past experiences, and the same habit makes a motivation answer specific.
Why might Tesla ask vague questions on purpose?
Under "During the Interview," Tesla writes:
"Instead of memorizing your talking points, consider every question thoughtfully. For technical challenges, the interviewer may value a compelling thought process more than a correct answer. Interviewers might even ask vague questions to see if you can identify the nuances of the problem and acknowledge assumptions."
Read that last sentence again. Tesla is telling you that a vague question may be deliberate, and that what the interviewer may be watching for is whether you spot the nuances and acknowledge your assumptions. When a question feels underspecified, naming what is unclear and stating the assumption you're making is a direct response to what Tesla wrote.
Tesla adds one more line worth taking literally. "We may ask technical questions to better understand your experiences, if relevant to the position." The technical questions are framed as a way into your experience, so if you claim a skill on your resume, expect to be asked about it.
And on questions of your own, Tesla says "There's no requirement to prepare questions, but we recommend using this opportunity to learn more about team dynamics, internal workflow or potential projects." That gives you three named topics to prepare around.
What does Tesla say about the rest of the process?
Very little, and the little is worth having.
On what happens next, the guide says "We will contact you regarding a follow-up interview or application update." On thank-you notes, it offers a useful route. "If you wish to send your interviewer a thank you note, your recruiter can pass it along for you." If you don't have your interviewer's email, send it through the recruiter.
For students, Tesla publishes a separate internship guide about applying, which includes a line worth knowing before you take a rejection personally. "As long as you meet eligibility requirements, there is no limit to how many times you can apply."
Neither document lists stages, durations, interviewer counts, or scoring criteria.
What interview questions has Elon Musk said he asks?
Musk described his own interview questions in public in 2017. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai in February 2017, as reported by Fortune at the time, citing CNBC, Musk said he wants a candidate (for a job at Tesla or SpaceX, as Fortune framed it) to tell him the "story of your life and the decisions that you made along the way, and why you made them."
He also asks candidates to "tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them." His reasoning, per that reporting, is that "people that really solved the problem, they know exactly how they solved it they know the little details," while those "pretending" only share so many details before "they get stuck."
That fits Tesla's written guidance, a PDF whose file metadata dates it to June 2024. The document asks for thought process and individual contributions, and Musk's question tests whether the details are yours.
To prepare, pick problems you personally worked on and be ready to go several levels down. What you tried that failed. The specific thing that made it hard. What you'd do differently. A summary won't hold up to that kind of follow-up.
Does Elon Musk still approve every Tesla hire?
In May 2023, Electrek reported on an internal email, also reported by Reuters via CNN, stating that no one could join Tesla, even as a contractor, without Musk's email approval.
That is well-sourced, and it is from 2023. We found nothing published since that establishes whether the policy still stands.
So treat it as true at a documented point in time. If your process stalls after a strong final round, ask your recruiter what the remaining approval steps are.
How big is Tesla, and what does that mean for your interview?
Tesla's FY2025 annual report states that "As of December 31, 2025, our employee headcount worldwide was 134,785." The FY2024 annual report put the same figure at 125,665 a year earlier. The FY2025 section also notes that Tesla "emphasize[s] stock ownership opportunities, with 92% of employees included in total rewards packages."
Tesla's interview guide is written generally, with no section for any particular function. A process description written for one software role may tell you little about a service or production role, so check any detailed account against the role you actually applied for.
What to stop worrying about
Any stage chart. Tesla's interview guide carries none, so a chart you find did not come from it. Ask your recruiter for yours.
An "Evidence of Excellence" rubric. If you come across this phrase presented as an internal Tesla evaluation framework, note that neither Tesla document cited here uses it.
Perfect answers. Tesla wrote down that it may value a compelling thought process more than a correct one. Take the company at its word.
The pattern worth taking away
Tesla's guide says little about process and a lot about how to behave in the room. Five questions. Answer clearly and concisely. Expect that a vague question may be deliberate, and name your assumptions. Bring problems you actually solved and know the details.
The preparation that pays is picking three hard problems from your own history and being able to go all the way down on any of them, out loud. That is a rehearsable skill. Four-Leaf's voice mock interviews measure your delivery off your own recording, returning your rate of um and uh, your words per minute and how often you hedged. They are measurable proxies for Tesla's instruction to answer clearly and concisely. Our comparison of the best mock interview platforms ranks the alternatives.
For how Tesla compares against employers that publish their loops in detail, see our guide to how tech companies run their interview processes. For contrast, see Salesforce, which publishes its grading order, and Uber, which publishes stage durations in minutes.
