I did not apply. The person who was hiring knew me, gave me a call one night at 8 PM and started interviewing me over phone. It was not scheduled. Anyway, he insisted that I answer all his questions (while I was on my way home, driving). Anyways, the next day I got an email from some HR lady from the company asking to schedule for an on site interview. I did that. The on site interview was 3-4 one-on-one session with people from Battery Management and Motor Control group. Before that I presented my work at school (that I did towards my PhD, resulted in 4 peer reviewed journal and 4 conference paper, and matching very well with the job that I was interviewing for). To me it was pretty easy. Before I leave, the person who is hiring asked me if I would take an exam, saying that he gives this take home exam to everyone who would apply for this position at F&F. It was a 72 hour take home exam. He insisted that I take it as soon as possible. So just when I landed back home, I took it. It was not very difficult, it was extremely time consuming. I turned it in before 72 hours. He called one of my references, and told that I did 'very well' in the test. Then there was nothing for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks I got an email that said he was offering me a 6 months temporary post-doc position at about 31 dollars/hour (which translates to 62k/year in LA), with no promise on visa sponsorship/immigration. I declined it. I said I would only consider full time position with a better pay.
He eventually hired someone else for this position and I happen to know that person too. He had no experience/expertise in motor design or electromagnetics, and a lot less contribution towards the intellectual society in terms of paper/publication/patent/citation. He was basically looking for cheap labor and he found it.
It is not school/academia where you give out take home exams for a job. That too, eventually does not matter because the company does not want to pay a respectable amount of money and eventually the person who does not mind doing cheap labor gets the job.
I am glad that I did not take it. I am already earning more than 120k/year. Also, the company (F&F) is not doing great.