Boston Dynamics Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

It started with a recruiter call, then a chat with the hiring manager where we mostly talked about past experiences and they threw in a few easy technical questions. The final part was a 4-hour on-site with a project presentation and two live coding interviews.

The interview started pretty standard, but they let me know upfront I'd need to do a presentation. The person coordinating things was nice and hit me with some tough technical questions about memory busses and stuff. It was a whiteboard session, not a big deal, but maybe not what I expected for this level, even with my hardware/software background. Their projector wasn't working, which ate into my presentation time. I managed to get the presentation going and suggested we save the Q&A for the end because of the delay, and everyone agreed it was a good idea. But then, two out of the four interviewers kept cutting me off, and one asked totally random questions. It was weird, and I got the sense it was on purpose, or if not, that's just how it is. At the end, the lead interviewer said, "Good job, thanks." I asked, "Any questions?" and he replied, "Well, no, because you didn't leave any time for questions!" with this look of disbelief. I didn't explain about the equipment delay or the interruptions; better to just be gracious. I figured right then that if I got an offer, I'd have issues working with some of the team. I saw other comments about the "MIT" vibe and think that might be it. Had lunch with the recruiter and someone else not involved in the interview, which was fine, always good to meet people. They mostly talked to each other, not super rude, but it showed there was no effort to sell me on the role. The employee, not the recruiter, walked me out, another sign. The robots were really cool, though. I got a small tour, and I messed up by joking, "Atlas is sleeping; he sure must be tired from all those videos." I was told off for using a pronoun that personifies it. I get it; they don't do that there to avoid emotional attachment to something that looks human. The team's reaction felt out of line, and I don't think it was intentional, which is concerning.

The interview process had 4 stages: resume screening, then three rounds. The first round was a 30-minute HR screening. The second was a 45-minute technical interview with engineers, which was technical only. The third round was with a manager, focusing on your experiences and yourself. This round could still lead to rejection, which is what happened to me.