NASA Software Engineer interview experience

I had to obtain a top secret clearance and go through numerous background tests and drug screens. The only part of the process that connected to the job itself was a skills assessment.

Even though there was an offer, the difficulty label made sense: most of the effort went into administrative and compliance checks rather than demonstrating day-to-day engineering capability. It was intense, and what surprised me most was how much time and attention the clearance process demanded compared to anything job-specific.