Broadcom Principal Software Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – One of their recruiters got in touch with me on linkedin. They were looking for someone with device driver background. After a few emails back and forth, they decided to bring me in their office instead of the regular phone screening. Initially I was told that this was still a screening process before the actual interview. I thought it was strange to have a screening process that lasted 5 hours. The questions were fairly generic like how do you reverse a linked list, dma vs io etc. There weren't any trick questions. They were all nice people but I felt there was a disconnect between them and the recruiter that was arranging the interview. Some of them didn't know what position I was interviewing for.
               I was under the assumption that I will be called for the next round of interview and then the recruiter called me and said that they are extending an offer to me. I was surprised at the turn of events but relieved that I didn't have to repeat the same things again for another few hours. The offer they extended me was probably good in market value, but they were barely able to match what I was making in terms of base salary. Their USP seems to be the restricted stock that they offer people. It would have been a nice match for me except that I got an offer in an early stage startup which promised me much better equity(Apples and oranges again). Overall, the experience was highly positive.

Reason for Declining – The difference in offer was not enough for me to make the transition as well as I had another offer in an early stage startup.

Interview Details – Interview consisted of writing programs in C -for string sorting , factorial, basic logic questions

Interview Details – My phone interview went well, mostly. I have been a Java programmer for years. The position was for a C++ programmer. I had done a few C++ projects, but really only engaged in those efforts after the libraries were built and design done. I was asked a rather obscure question that I thought would have dropped me from the running. But, later I was invited to fly out for an interview.

It turned out that they really liked me because I had deep understanding of a particular technology and technique area related to systems management that they needed.

Likewise, the onsite interview was gauntlet of technical questions, most of which I nailed. There were a few Microsoft like puzzle questions. But the first session was with the recruiter who told me about there novel bonus structure.

I was asked if I could work nights and weekends on occasions. I noticed during lunch onsite that there were only young people there. I got the distinct impression that they work their people hard with long hours and tough scheduled. I was warned of this possibility by this site. All of the people I had met were recent immigrants, which was only a curiosity to me.

It seems like the manager really wanted to hire me.

I interviewed with his boss, last session of the day. He described their architecture. I pointed out a rather significant flaw with the design. I should not have done that. Later, I was told I was not offered the job because the interview ended badly. Hmmm.