QualcommInterview Experience — Associate Engineer

Hi, this is my entire experience for the role of Associate Hardware Engineer at Qualcomm, 6 months intern + FTE. The eligibility was 7 CPI above and no backlogs at all. OA contains three parts: Aptitude, Programming in C and Digital. Each section is timed, 30 mins 20 questions per section. Section A- Aptitude: This section is quite tough. It is recommended to practice speed maths and timed aptitude of tough questions. There is always a passage-based question on logical deduction. Sometimes it is a seating arrangement question. Profit-loss, ratio and proportion, percentage, time-distance, expenditure-salary etc. are a few topics but questions are time consuming and tricky. A rectangular floor of integer sides is to be covered by blue tiles on the edges and purple tiles on the inside. If the number of purple and blue tiles are equal, which of the following cannot be the sides of the rectangle? A chart of percentage of 6 students was given with %marks in 6 subjects and total marks in each subject were given. 5 questions succeeded the chart, requiring to calculate one student’s total marks in all subjects, difference between marks of 2 students in different subjects, etc. John covers 2/5th of the distance of a marathon at a speed of 8km/hr and the remaining distance at 7km/hr and completed in 2 hrs 35 mins. What is the distance that ran? Ranks of 6 students were to be determined by given clues. 5 questions succeeded the clues. C Programming: 2-3 questions from Basics of operating systems are asked. Error detection, output prediction, questions on properties of queues, stacks and linked lists. Round Robin algorithm etc. It is comparatively easy section. Solve C quizzes from GFG. They shall be enough. Jenny’s lectures for basic DSA are also enough, depending on what channel you prefer following. Sometimes pre-order, in-order and post-order of a binary search tree, binary tree are also asked. Some questions on performance. Section 3 was digital electronics. Very basic questions on digital electronics like equation of SR flip flop, next state of a counter, some tough questions based on sheet resistance, ADC-DAC, Noise margins etc. There will always be questions that you have never heard of or never seen at all. Route back to them after you have finished your paper.Interview Experience : Number of rounds for interview were varying. 3,4 was the common number. Interviewers are friendly and mostly ask questions related to your resume. Make sure to review it thoroughly once and know all the concepts that are mentioned or you might loose a fair chance at the company. My personal experience was as follows: Round 1: It started off with my introduction. Always have an impressive introduction prepared and on the tip of your tongue. Don’t recite it, make sure it sounds like you are talking to a person. Then the rest of the interview is directed by the resume. I was asked questions like: Draw CMOS based OR gate, full adder using half adder, explain KVL, KCL, Frequency modulation, Amplitude Modulation, Fourier transform, Draw a kmap and was given minterms, had to simply the expression. It helps if you have done a few courses. Mine was one by Qualcomm academy and was asked how I enjoyed it and it definitely gave out a good impression. It was followed by a fundamental question in SystemVerilog, delays, what are assertions, what is coverage, what are different types of coverage and such. They also ask a puzzle, I was asked to make 4 litres of water from a 3L, 5L container and an infinite water source. After solving it, I was asked to provide another approach for solving it. That concluded my technical interview, spanning around 1 hour. After a couple of hours, I was called for HR round. It was 4-5 mins long with questions like ‘How are you liking Allahabad?’, hobbies and job location preference. Tips from personal experience: Don’t be scared of the interviewer. If you are, don’t let it show on your face because your confidence will say a lot about you. Show willingness to improve and upskill. Think loud. Whatever approach you are using to solve a question, make it audible so they can correct you if are wrong and give you hints if you are stuck. Treat your interview like a discussion. Don’t take a back foot and just answer questions. If you can think of multiple answers or approaches to a question, mention both of them and don’t be afraid to be wrong. If you think you might be making a mistake, mention so. Know your resume in depth. I cannot stress enough on this. Study your project in depth Don’t stick to basic preparation. Make your resume stand out. Learn industry standards and show your eagerness to be trained.