Ouster Interview Questions
& Process

It was a really weird interview. I thought it was for optomechanical, but it turned out to be for mechanical. I also thought I was just meeting the lead, but the whole team of about 6 people showed up. They didn't even do a standard intro like 'tell me about yourself.' Instead, they immediately asked if I had questions for them. It wasn't really behavioral; they didn't ask about leadership or teamwork. It felt way too technical for an internship, almost like a full-time entry-level role. They hit me with tough technical questions from my resume, and it seemed like they weren't sure how to interview properly. It was also strange they focused on older resume stuff instead of my recent experience.

It started with a recruiter call, followed by a hiring manager interview. Then I was given a design challenge, which felt like free work, but I agreed. The challenge involved a workflow problem where I had to interview a 'PM' to get product requirements and understand user issues. I then had to create a design solution and a prototype. After that, I did a mock usability test with an 'engineer' to get feedback and iterate on my design. The final round was a presentation of my prototype to a panel of about 5 people, mostly engineers. They asked questions and focused on certain features, mostly workflow rather than UI. After the presentation, the company went silent. I tried reaching out for over two weeks, and the recruiter kept saying they hadn't decided. This was weird because they were responsive initially. I felt like they were wasting people's time.

The hiring process was unusual. After I applied, I got an interview request the very next day. The only interview I had was with the VP. I have experience in lens design for photonic packaging, mechanical design, and thermal/structural simulations from both industry and academia. My qualifications met all the requirements and even the 'good-to-have' ones. However, the VP, who I thought would be more focused on management than technical skills, conducted the interview and immediately stated I lacked imaging optics experience. I explained my experience, mentioning my design portfolio includes several imaging optics designs and that I understand the concepts and can use lens design software, even if I don't have direct industry experience in imaging optics development. He dismissed my explanation and kept insisting I wasn't a good fit. This seemed odd since the hiring manager should be the one assessing technical fit. My guess is the team and recruiter wanted to proceed with me, but the VP intervened and found a reason to reject me. If this is how they hire, it suggests a broken process and potentially a toxic workplace.

It was a pretty long interview process, starting with a 1:1 with the recruiter, then a 1:1 with the hiring manager. After that, there were several small panel interviews, followed by a 1:1 with the commercial leader, and finally a 1:1 with the CEO. The whole thing took a while, partly because COVID affected how the company was making decisions, which slowed things down.