Embedded SW/Firmware Interviews

AMD / Eng
>🐼<

Go to company page AMD Eng

>🐼<
May 6, 2020 9 Comments

Hello,

Was wondering if people could share their interview experience for embedded SW/firmware positions (any level). Types of questions,specific questions, format, resources they used to help study etc.

I see a lot of resources for SWE (Leetcode, EPI CTCI etc) but not a lot for embedded and not a lot of discussion. Hoping to get a discussion thread going on this topic. I think it would be useful for anyone aiming for these kinds of roles now and in the future.

Thank you

#embedded #firmware #interview #study #career

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TOP 9 Comments
  • Infosys / Eng
    BRY47

    Go to company page Infosys Eng

    BRY47
    For the embedded positions I’ve interviewed for, I found a mix of LC questions and questions about C and RTOS. I don’t have experience with RTOS though and this seems to be a huge thing for embedded interviewers.
    May 6, 2020 3
    • Infosys / Eng
      BRY47

      Go to company page Infosys Eng

      BRY47
      Yup mostly theory based, however there was WeWork that asked me to code up a thread safe queue in C using codility. I tried to explain how I would do it but apparently they wanted compilable code.
      May 6, 2020
    • AMD / Eng
      >🐼<

      Go to company page AMD Eng

      >🐼<
      OP
      Oh wow
      Surprised a company like WeWork was hiring for embedded.

      Do you have any resources you reccomended to help study for the theory questions you encountered?
      May 6, 2020
  • Apple
    -<3<-

    Go to company page Apple

    -<3<-
    Bit operations, memory allocators, multi-threaded code, circular queue, OS concepts- mutex, semaphore, spinlock.. if you have anything related in your resume: kernel programming, CPU architecture, caches, interrupt handlers.
    May 19, 2020 0
  • You're probably going to get the same lc/hackerrank qs plus os concepts and trouble shooting qs (ex linux tool usage). For linux you should learn about top, dmesg, ldd, ld, netstat, ldconfig, export.

    For instance, if you try and run a program in linux but it fails with no console output, you can use dmesg to identify if it tried to run an illegal instruction as well as the lib or exe that caused it. ldd can show dependent shared libraries for your application.

    Multi threading is pretty popular too. Not just in the lc type questions, but also for optimization (ex: try to move locking to the part of the code that gets executed less often or try to use lock free programming). The lc multi threading qs are really good even though there's only like 10 of them.
    May 6, 2020 2
    • AMD / Eng
      >🐼<

      Go to company page AMD Eng

      >🐼<
      OP
      I've barely touched multi-threaded code. Guess that's another topic to add to my list.

      Do you think/know if those come up for junior level positions or if its mostly for people with a few years of experience in the field?
      May 6, 2020
    • If you're coming in at 0 yeo, knowing basic multi-threaded fizz buzz should be plenty and will set you apart. This is one of those subjects that gets breezed over in school, but is definitely expected knowledge for someone with 2-3 years of experience.
      May 6, 2020
  • Ag Leader Technology
    chotaBheem

    Ag Leader Technology

    chotaBheem
    Multi threading must. I was asked many times to simply explain ring buffer working with multi core scenarios.

    Put that in your resume and they will probably get stuck with that and you can finish interview πŸ˜‚
    May 6, 2020 0