Embedded Software Interview

kevin306

I am Just graduated as an Electronic Engineer. Have my first Interview for a Grad Embedded Software Engineer position coming up.
Just wondering does anyone have any knowledge of the general technical questions that would be asked for graduates certain areas that I can focus on.

DublinDilbert

kevin306 wrote: »

I am Just graduated as an Electronic Engineer. Have my first Interview for a Grad Embedded Software Engineer position coming up.
Just wondering does anyone have any knowledge of the general technical questions that would be asked for graduates certain areas that I can focus on.

Do you know what products the company produce or work on? There's a fairly large difference between writing embedded pic code to an application to run on embedded linux. If you can get more information in advance it would be a big help in deciding what to focus on.

kevin306

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Do you know what products the company produce or work on? There's a fairly large difference between writing embedded pic code to an application to run on embedded linux. If you can get more information in advance it would be a big help in deciding what to focus on.

They are involved in the design and development of software that enables the electronics embedded in audio, video and data communication devices.

A few thing mentioned in job spec skills:

Linux device driver, kernel and user space application development
Multi-thread, multi-process, multi-core processor application development.
Strong understanding of electronics and computer architecture fundamentals, e.g.
microprocessors (ARM, x86), I/O chipsets, memories, digital buses and I/O interfaces.

kevin306

Anyone at all guys, interview in a few days just want to be some way prepared. Or am I maybe in the wrong forum.

Colonel Panic

I don't think you're in the wrong forum, it's just embedded software development's a small subset of what people do here.

What do you know about the stuff on the job spec? Do you know anything about developing for a hardware with limited resources? What about data structures and algorithms?

kevin306

Colonel Panic wrote: »

I don't think you're in the wrong forum, it's just embedded software development's a small subset of what people do here.

What do you know about the stuff on the job spec? Do you know anything about developing for a hardware with limited resources? What about data structures and algorithms?

Not very strong on it to be honest. Only just graduated from College so have no experience as of yet. I was in contact with them and did say that I didn't feel I had the experienced knowledge they required, but they said they had graduate roles also and wanted me to come in for interview based on my CV and projects I done in college. So based on that I don't think they will go into great detail with there questioning as they know my situation. Just wondering does anyone have an idea what are some things that would definitely come up.

DublinDilbert

Ok so rather than looking at small micro-controllers you'll want to be looking at larger microprocessors.

From looking at your CV you'd have to assume they know your just out of college and might have limited experience of embedded linux, only a limited number of courses in ireland would cover this. So they are probably going to want to see how interested you are in working with hardware / software etc...

If you had more time you could get your hands on a Raspberry pi and have a play around with it, so you could atleast say you've done something with one.



Some other stuff to think about:-

They will ask you about any linux experience, even PC stuff that you've done on linux. What's Telnet? what's SSH? what's the difference?

Do you know the difference between NAND and NOR flash? which would be used in an embedded linux system?

Do you know how Ethernet works? How would you interface a microprocessor with an ethernet port? RMII interface?

Colonel Panic

Good post, Dilbert.

Some suggestions based on the job spec:

Knowing the difference between kernel and user space
Threading stuff like what happens on thread context switch, race conditions, deadlock and the like
A little bit on memory allocation in C.

kevin306

Thanks for the feedback guys much appreciated. Could I maybe PM the job spec to you just so you know exactly. This is also for experienced engineers aswell so not all I'm sure will apply to me. If I can PM it let me know if not thanks very much for the replys.

longhalloween

kevin306 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback guys much appreciated. Could I maybe PM the job spec to you just so you know exactly. This is also for experienced engineers aswell so not all I'm sure will apply to me. If I can PM it let me know if not thanks very much for the replys.

PM me the job spec. I have a list of questions I've been asked in various interviews that might come in handy.

kevin306

Thanks very much will do.