I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Rivian (Palo Alto, CA) in May 2024
Interview
Got connected through referral. Interviewed through videochat. Interviewer didn’t even bother to show up first time, with no explanation, and I got rescheduled. Second time, the same interviewer showed up and pretended like nothing ever happened. They asked me 5 minutes with bog standard “getting to know you” question - I doubt they read my resume, then proceeded to ask a bog standard leetcode question. I didn’t do well on that question, but I didn’t care. As a senior engineer in larger firms, I personally don't believe in emphasizing leetcode with a senior level role. In general, the whole recruitment process was efficient, but disappointing.
7 rounds of Interviews
Mix of HR, Resume Deep Dives, System Design and Coding interviews (C++, CUDA, Python , Pytorch)
System Design Focus on autonomous driving for higher Levels of autonomy
I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Rivian in Sept 2025
Interview
i had total of 4 rounds of coding and 2 system designs
i struggled with 1 coding round, i wrote the solution but it didn't pass all the test cases, i guess it was considered as failure, which i can understand
they conducted additional round of coding and i solved the problem even with the follow up question.
Rivian decided to give me down level offer which is 50% of the salary that i was getting from one of faang company.
very disappointing.
Recruiter told me their bar is so high (but not the salary) and i am not good enough for senior role.
5 rounds of interviews. HR, HM, Live Coding, System design, Cross functional. Lasts about a week or two in total. All were done online. All in all a good experience.