Would Elon Musk pass the Google, Amazon, or Facebook technical interview for the software engineer position?
I am a Principal engineer at Amazon and I’ve held similar positions at Microsoft and Oracle. I have been part of 100+ interviews. These views mine and not of my employers.
Yes he can get a job. Would he want to ? May be not lol..
- Musk used to be a software developer. A lot of the coding questions are based on algorithms and data structures. We don’t care about the choice of programming language. These haven’t changed much over the last 20 years.
- He has a strong analytical background and is quite linear and methodical in his reasoning. This is something we look for explicitly.
- Ability to specialize: Musk has the capacity to grok/learn complex subjects, including brand new ones for him: ICBM propulsion technology. It was his “light” reading on a flight to Russia to procure an ICBM or so I’ve heard. This skill would enable him to really understand the depths of any area in CS if he chooses to gain depth.
- Software development/engineering is a lot about making the right trade offs and iterating quickly when you’re wrong. There is so much evidence of that in his endeavors, the first couple of launches for SpaceX was brutal but he learned. He learned from those blow ups quite literally. The biggest difference between a “good” and “great” in software business is about making the right trade offs.
- He demonstrates deep customer empathy and a growth mindset. This is a must have to succeed in the software business. Gone are the days of building hard to use software. I don’t own a Tesla but I do own the stock. I bought it after I went and test drove it and seeing how the little things were both a product of function (depressed door handles reducing drag to conserve energy) and form (the door handles are also beautiful with chrome finishes and sleek lines). Honestly it was delightful to be in one of his vehicles. At Amazon we call it working backwards from the customer.
So he shouldn’t have a problem getting an SDE job with a month of prep. The prep is so that he becomes quicker at identifying solutions to problems and writing code rather than grokking new concepts. What would his leveling be ? We won’t know until he interviews.