SanDisk

Role: Firmware Developer (FTE+Intern)

College: Not Specified (On-Campus)

Interview Date: February 26, 2021

Interview Type: On-Campus, Full-Time & Internship

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 4 rounds (Online Test + 3 Technical/HR rounds)

Topics Asked: General Aptitude, C/C++, Operating Systems, Electronics, Computer Architecture, Data Structures, Algorithms, HR questions.

Experience:

The recruitment process for a Firmware Developer role at SanDisk (Western Digital) consisted of an online test followed by three interview rounds. The online test had four sections: General Aptitude, C and C++, Operating System, and Electronics. It comprised 45 questions to be completed in 45 minutes, and the difficulty was medium.

Round 1 (Technical - 1 hour): This round involved hands-on coding. The candidate was asked to write and run 5 coding questions in an editor.

• Write a code in C to return the maximum product of two numbers of an array in O(n) time.
• You are given an array of 0s and 1s. How can you modify the array such that the array contains all the zeros first and then the ones? What if the array contains 0s, 1s, and 2s? Write the code in C for both.
• Write a code in C to reverse a negative number.
• You are given a string. Modify the string such that the string contains only vowels and delete all consonants. Write code in C (Example: string="Ruthvick", output = "ui").
• Write a code in C to find the sum of all subarrays of the array in O(n) time.

Round 2 (Technical - 1 hour): This round primarily focused on Operating Systems and Computer Architecture. Questions included:

• What is volatile memory?
• What is structure padding?
• Difference between Mutex and Semaphores.
• What are interrupts in computer architecture?
• What is a dangling pointer?

Round 3 (Technical/Managerial - 1 hour): This round was a mix of technical and managerial questions. Questions related to coding approaches, operating systems, and computer architecture were asked again.

Round 4 (HR Round - 1 hour): The HR round was described as casual and friendly. Questions asked were:

• What are your weaknesses and strengths?
• Where do you want to see yourself after 5 years?
• Which is your favorite university for MS education?
• How do you keep yourself motivated?
• General career aspirations.

The candidate was ultimately selected for the Firmware Developer role. The overall advice was to prepare daily using platforms like GeeksforGeeks and to maintain confidence even when faced with unfamiliar questions.