I applied through university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at iRobot (Boston, MA) in Jun 2013
Interview
Phone interview with 2 intern wranglers. They ask about mechanical aptitude, education, and personality traits. It was low pressure, how ever they do ask a few technical questions just to see how you think. Getting the right answer isn't the most important, your thinking process is. "What kind of things outside of school do you participate in that demonstrate your interests in mechanical engineering" is a very common question.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What kind of things outside of school do you participate in that demonstrate your interests in mechanical engineering
First I had to fill out a questionnaire with questions about be experience. Then they scheduled a Skype interview which turned out to be a phone interview, apparently because of miscommunication with HR. This was the last stage.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked two technical/thought process questions. 1) A truck gets wedged underneath a bridge that it was too tall to pass underneath. How would you get the truck out? 2) A person with a bowling ball is standing on a boat and drops the ball into the water. Does the water level rise, decline, or stay the same?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at iRobot in Jan 2014
Interview
Basically a rundown of my resume and questions about my experience. I heard they asked some other people who interviewed some very basic physics questions. Nothing out of the ordinary. A little less than a week later they called me with an offer.