I'm a recruiter (not at SpaceX, adjacent industry) and I prepped a candidate who went through the SpaceX screen last quarter. Sharing what I've seen across a few candidates who made it past this stage.
The SpaceX recruiter screen is 30-45 minutes. It is not a warmup. It is an actual filter and candidates who treat it like a formality get cut here.
What the recruiter covers: Background walkthrough. They want the narrative, not the resume read-back. Where have you been, why did you leave, what are you looking for. Why SpaceX, right now. Not "why SpaceX in general." Why now. What's your personal connection to the mission or work. Vague answers don't land. The candidates I've seen progress had a real, specific answer. One mentioned a Starlink outage that affected their own work and wanting to be on the side that fixes that. Work authorization and location. SpaceX roles often require US citizenship for certain orgs (ITAR). The recruiter will confirm this early. Don't wait until offer stage to surface any issues. Brief technical background check. Not a coding question, just a conversation: what's your primary stack, what have you worked on at scale, what's the largest system you've owned. They're pattern-matching to the job. Questions for the recruiter. This is where a lot of candidates drop the ball. Have 2-3 good questions. Asking about team size, current technical challenges in the org, what the ramp looks like. Don't ask about PTO.
The recruiter is also evaluating communication. Can you be concise. Do you ramble. Are you actually interested or are you doing 30 applications a week and going through the motions. They can tell.