Toyota Connected Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

It began with a friendly recruiter call where she explained the whole process. Next, there was a one-way virtual interview. You listen to recorded questions and then have 5 seconds to record your response. This stage also included a 45-minute technical challenge. Passing that led to a technical interview with two team members: a Senior Software Engineer and a Manager. They asked technical questions about concurrency, memory management, and your experience. The final round was focused on behavioral and cultural fit, with some technical questions mixed in. I met with the manager I'd be working under and their boss. Doing well in this round leads to an offer.

The interview process was quite unfriendly. It kicked off with a quick phone screen, followed by an online interview. This online part involved a set of timed questions, some straightforward, others requiring really obscure knowledge. You're video recorded throughout, and these recordings are then sent to hiring managers. I felt it was unfriendly because it's stressful if you're not used to being on camera, you don't get feedback or a chance to ask questions, and the timing adds more stress. While I get it might be efficient for them, as someone with years of experience, I was surprised to feel like I wasn't even worth a live conversation. I would have preferred a format like Skype for actual interaction and feedback. Ultimately, the process was a good sign that I didn't want to work there, given the lack of respect from the get-go.

The interview process was a 3-part series: a phone interview, an online interview, and an onsite interview. The phone interview was a basic screen where they asked about my experience with microservices and AWS, and also about my resume. They also asked if I was open to a contract-to-hire role, which I declined. The online interview was conducted via HireVu and included a mix of technical, agile, and behavioral questions, totaling about 15. I had 30 seconds to prepare for each question before a 5-minute recording period. The onsite interview involved an initial meet-and-greet with two people, followed by a technical interview with potential teammates discussing microservices, heap/stack, memory allocation, dependency injection, and Spring. Then, another interview with two team members focused on past projects and experience, like "What was the best project you ever worked on? What did you do on that project?". The final onsite interview was with the head of HR, who was very direct and critical, questioning my motives for asking about growth and advancement, and highlighting the difficulty of advancement and lack of mentorship structure. Despite the HR interview, they extended a 6-month contract-to-hire offer for $80k, with no overtime, no vacation/PTO, and requiring a reapplication through a contracting company. The full-time role was salaried at the same amount. The offer was non-negotiable and significantly lower than my current earnings and stated expectation. The contract-to-hire nature was framed as a benefit for me to assess company culture, which I found disingenuous given my explicit rejection of contract roles.