Qualcomm Associate Engineer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Questions based on O.S., compiler, DS, and C. The questions were basic, testing normal knowledge.
Total Questions: 20-25

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It was a 20-minute round. Apart from the questions mentioned, one puzzle regarding number of rectangles on a chessboard was given.
Tips: Over all preparation in C, DSP course, OS and course in networking helps.

Round: HR Interview
Tips: Know about the company, PPT and website.

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: Tell me about yourself: tell something special about yourself and make yourself proud. Setup time and hold time Digital design, Combinational and sequential circuits design(thorough understanding of design steps) were some of the questions. appeared for VLSI written test. They expected very basic knowledge in Digital, analog, communication subjects. CAT type of questions and very basic Computer programming questions (Three sections each about 15-20 questions). Online test was very easy, so I think cutoff was high.
Tips: Be calm, relaxed and answer questions thoughtfully Attention to instructions is important.
Total Questions: 60

Round: Interview
Experience: Interview was completely oriented on Job profile: digital VLSI and some personal questions.
Tips: Be confident. Be clear in your answers and proper explanation to it. Take your time to think and act. If you don’t know something accept it. More importantly wear smile on your face. This automatically brings confidence within you.

Round: Interview
Experience: Some more VLSI design questions. Personal questions too.
Tips: Think and answer. Both Interview panels were very cool and calm. Take your time to think and answer.

Round: Interview
Experience: This was very formal interview. Not much to say.
Tips: Show your keen interest to know more about the company and activi-ties, corporate life, your work in company.

General Tips: Technology initiative and leadership. Good Academics really help a lot in the interview (There was no CV submission till we qualify Written test) Most important is a thorough preparation: Start as early as possible atleast in Mid of Oct./first week of Nov. starting from good CV preparation to brushing up and thorough understanding of all important subjects for Technology companies you are targeting.
Skill Tips: Good academic records. CGPA criteria for Qualcomm was 8 and they were very strict about CG cutoff. A thorough subject preparation. Be mentally prepared for HR questions. Be focused till you actually have offer in your hand. Tech events, Leadership qualities like positions in Hall, Gymkhana etc. in Tech committees would help a lot for these Technology companies. Qualcomm HR clearly mentioned they need candys who can take initiative, self motivated and more inclined to technology leadership and achievements.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR

Round: Test
Experience: Online test consists of 3 parts: 
1) Aptitude 
2) programming (C/C++, Data Structures) 
3) Technical. 
No negative marking. Apti and programming parts were easy. There were three different technical sections forthree different profiles: 1) Hardware 2) Communication/DSP 3) Software.I appeared for 2nd profile. In this, the technical section had question mostly from DSP, few from communication, analog circuits, digital circuits etc. Each section was given different amount of time. Time for the Technical section was less and I felt that this section was the deciding factor in short listing. There was a CGPA cutoff of 7.5 . My CGPA was 8.75.

Round: Interview
Experience: There were 3 rounds of interview out of which 2 were technical and 1 was HR round. Asked about thesis, term papers, trainings, and question on Digital logic circuits: to design FSM, designing simple logic circuits, delay & its calculation in the digital circuit, MOS etc. Few communication related questions, some puzzles and apti questions. In HR, they asked common HR questions like about yourself, Why qualcomm, training experience, any specific location preference etc. both the technical rounds were almost 40 minutes long and HR was 20 minutes.

General Tips: 1) Should be clear about your M.Tech thesis, B.Tech project, summer training, Term papers. Understand their terminologies and concepts since almost all companies ask about it.
2) For aptitude preparation, solve the material available in preparation portal, can see for online aptitude tests and puzzles and along with that appear honestly in the mock tests organized by SPO. Aim on accuracy and speed.
3) For Programming preparation, revise basic concepts of C and DS, you can use book by Denis Ritche, Yeshwant Kanetkar. Solve online mock programming tests, so you get aware of standard questions andmost common mistakes. Try to write some codes while preparing so that you will be confident writing infront of interviewer, especially of DS like linked list, trees, sorting, searching etc. I did not prepare for OS,but most of the software companies do ask questions on it. Galvin is the standard book for OS.
4) Technical: very vast field includes all the course and practical knowledge you have been studying. Basicconcepts should be clear. Prepare Digital circuit design, Communication, Wireless Communication, DSP,
Computer networks, and most importantly subjects of your interest 
5) Do prepare in groups, it will help you in clearing your doubts and also it will improve your interview skills. Mock interviews are also organized for your confidence building.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: It contained 3 sections: Aptitude Questions, Programming questions and third section depending on which profile the candidate is opting for, which contained CS,VLSI or DSP profile. Programming: Pseudo code questions which required to find the output of code or the code which resulted in specific output.
Tips: Answer all questions since there was no negative marking (at least this time).

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I had three interviews out of which the first two were technical and third H.R. The interview started with a personal question. Then I was aked about my project in detail. Knowing what projects you did and basic details which constitute the base of the project is must. The next question was about designing a FSM. And the following interview was based on general VLSI based questions mainly setup-hold time, power consumption reduction techniques etc and some puzzles.
Tips: Knowing the basics about subjects and projects is most important.

General Tips: High CGPA is helpful but your answers in interview are
more important.
Skill Tips: For VLSI part a HDL is needed and knowing software related to VLSI CAD is added advantage. Also good logical ability and problem solving skill helps since they ask puzzles and digital design problems.
Skills: HDL
College Name: IIT Kharagpur

Round: Test
Experience: The online test consists of Quant, core (basic digital, devices, signals), C programming.
Tips: Lots of online resources will aid you in the process.
Focus on courses like Digital IC Design, CAD for VLSI and Computer Architecture. 
Preparing for CAT improves number of options (non-core and core wise) and reduces stress. 
Keeping in touch with C programming helps a lot.
Learning Data Structures and Algorithms seems to give you an edge.
Duration: 120 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: Interview is held in 3 rounds – one HR round and two technical rounds.Round duration can vary from 40 minutes to 1 hour.First Interview (Extremely localized and in depth) : 1. Verilog( Design of sequential circuits )2. FSM design (Sequence detection and coding it in Verilog) 3. Digital circuit topologies (Design choices made on the basis of topologies) 4. Digital circuit design (Problem solving) 5. Timing analysis (Cause of violations and rectification)Second Interview (Very diverse set of topics):1.Verilog state machines (Very detailed) 2.Digital verification 3.Quantum Physics (Minor) (Poisson Bracket (commutability and Eigen basis))4.Control systems (Phase and gain margins) 5.Timing analysis (Set up and hold time violations) 6.Communication systems (SNR and modulation techniques)

Round: Interview
Experience: General set of HR questions are asked.

Skill Tips: ""
College Name: IIT Madras