Did the SpaceX online assessment in January while I was halfheartedly running a search. Leaving the data here because the info I found before taking it was mostly from 2023 and I didn't fully trust it.
Platform: HackerRank. Received the link by email after the recruiter screen.
Format: 2 questions, 90-minute timer that starts when you open it. You can use any language they support. I used Python.
Question 1: Graph traversal. Find the minimum cost path in a weighted graph with some constraints on which nodes can be revisited. Felt like a Dijkstra variant with an extra condition. Medium difficulty, maybe Medium-Hard. Solved it.
Question 2: String manipulation with a sliding window. More straightforward. Solved it clean.
Things I noticed: The problems are not identical to LeetCode but they rhyme. Specifically: graph traversal, dynamic programming, and sliding window have all come up in multiple reports I've seen. No ML, no SQL, no system design. Pure DSA. HackerRank's autocomplete is annoying. I'd recommend testing your language of choice in their environment before the real thing. I left with about 20 minutes to spare. 90 min is enough if you're comfortable with the patterns.
I moved to phone interview stage after, so passing the OA does not feel like a super narrow filter. It's more of a baseline DSA check. If you can do LC mediums consistently you're probably fine.
The actual hard filter is the onsite coding rounds, from what I can tell.