Toyota Motor Corporation Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

So first, there's this online assessment thing you gotta do from home. It's got timed coding questions, mostly about data structures and algorithms, and also some multiple-choice on computer science basics. After you finish it, they look at your answers, and if you did well, you get to move on to a 1-hour interview.

There were two interviews. The first was a phone call with HR where we discussed my availability and my knowledge of Toyota's culture. I also had to describe myself. The second interview lasted 45 minutes and was with the HR manager and a Technical Manager.

I applied for a contract role at Toyota Head Office in Epsom, UK, as a Middleware Software Engineer. Normally, there's a phone interview followed by an on-site one, but they were in a hurry so I went straight to the face-to-face. I was interviewed by three long-term contractors. It was a pretty relaxed chat, and they seemed like nice people. We talked about my past experience and how I'd tackled certain issues, plus Agile and best practices. It felt like they weren't really doing Agile and just winged it. No coding test, which I'm not sure if that's normal for them or just for me. They wanted me to look at a system problem they had and suggest how to fix it. I felt like I was doing free consulting, which seemed common. My impression was they wanted someone to just connect all their systems to move data around. A lot of their systems are old, and their tech approach is pretty strange. I'm a really experienced Software Engineer with nearly 20 years in various industries, so my rate reflects that. They offered less than my rate and then tried to drop it even lower with the offer. To make up for it, they offered 1-2 days WFH, like it was some amazing perk. I turned it down straight away and won't consider them again because they don't seem to respect employees, especially salary-wise. Overall, I don't think it's a great place to work, and for the low pay, you can't expect an interesting job.