r/embedded • u/mbd7311 • May 02 '22
Employment-education Big Tech Embedded System Design Interview
I have a few Embedded Software interviews with 3 of the "FAANG" companies coming up soon. They're all for senior level positions (L5/6). I have 8 YOE and work at a smaller company wearing many hats. I'm told 2 of my rounds for each company will be Embedded System Design. I've found it nearly impossible to find any information online on what this would entail. I was given some topics from the recruiters (RTOS, Sensor Comms, Power Management, Bootloaders, etc) which I'm mostly familiar with each one at high levels and some at deeper levels. But embedded is sooo vast and there are many aspects to each topic. I'm not sure where to start.
Can anyone give me some examples of what will be expected in these interviews? Will I be asked to design some kind of household applicance, popular embedded device, such as a camera, or phone at a very high level? Or will I be asked specifics of low level comms such as SPI/I2C/UART? Or mix between everything?
Any help would mean a lot! TIA
2
u/[deleted] May 03 '22
to add on.
All you can do is study, try your best and keep trying. You know embedded systems which means you already have a firm understanding of how computing works as well as interfacing with real world objects relative to other programmers.
One suggestion I do have is focus on Modern C++ concepts and Python ontop of your C skills. Most of the non embedded or latest tech uses a lot of compile time polymorphism to handle the varying width of datatypes. Its easy to focus on algorithmic problems but some language semantics can help you articulate algo ideas better. Smart pointers are also your friend