Cypress Semiconductor Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – I'm writing this as a former Cypress hiring manager for over a decade. I've conducted hundreds of interviews for Cypress.

Getting your resume in the door:

Cypress does not usually advertise or use recruiters. Both of these require CEO approval which is hard to get.

The best way to enter Cypress is from campus as an NCG (New College Grad.) or through an employee referral.

Process:

Cypress does not have the usual req system which exist in other companies. It is called an ATR (authorization to recruit) and is merely permission from the division Exec. VP to attempt to hire.

All ATRs will show up in an external hiring portal. If you are lucky, you may actually see this online.

The hiring manager will prepare a set of questions for that position and recruit 5 to 7 interviewers. There will be at least 3 to 4 one on one interviews and one group interview called a "wolf pack." This is to generate fear and stress in the candidate to see if they will survive under pressure.

Each interviewer is assigned a "hard skills" domain and "soft skills" domain for the interview but they are not restricted to those and may ask almost anything relevant or irrelevant.

Soft skill questions are linked to the publicly visible "core values" on the Cypress website.

The one on one interviews will be either on the phone, or face to face at Cypress. For some candidates, Cypress might conduct the interviews offsite but this is rare.

The wolf pack is almost always on site.

On completing the interviews, the hiring manager will over the next few days make a series of calls for reference checking. In addition they will forward the completed "offer book" to HR which will in turn forward to central HR in San Jose. Once a week, all offerbooks and their perceived impact are presented to the CEO for review and if there is money available, the offer may or may not be made that week. This process will continue until the money becomes available, or the candidate gives up. The best case is 3 days and the worst case can be months. Hiring managers will pretend that they are in control of this process, but the reality is that it all depends on the political equation between the division EVP and the CEO.

The CEO, T. J. Rodgers is very proud of this process and has described it in some articles under the term "hiring auction."

Unlike other companies, where hiring dollars are made available up front, Cypress schedules it at their convenience and expects candidates to wait. The money for hiring is usually made available by laying off staff at "high cost" regions and hiring is usually in "low cost" regions.

Negotiation Details – It took several weeks at my level. It is shorter at junior levels. At mid levels you may be able to get a joining or relocation bonus. You can also ask for RSUs instead of stock. If you play hardball, and the hiring manager is desperate since they spend a lot of time on this, you might be able to get a better deal. Remember that all decisions are made at the CEO level so you have to help the hiring manager with information which they can use to get it approved. Be prepared to wait for long periods without any information on the process.

Interview Details – Wolf pack interview, 4 or 5 1:1 . Interview takes one complete day

Interview Details – Cypress came for on-campus hiring for Masters candidate at IITD. CGPA cutoff was 8. Interview will be technical only (2-3 rounds) with elimination after each stage. Final few would have fill-up a form containing HR questions. The interview process takes about 1 day completely.

Negotiation Details – No

Interview Details – Got shortlisted thorugh job fair.
then One on campus interview, one phone screening and then onsite.

Negotiation Details – no negotiation. low salary than competitors.

Interview Details – wolfpack interview...about 7-8 people interviewed me. Regular marketing/pricing/interpersonal skills questions.

Interview Details – first round: phone interview behavior questions, bala bala bala nothing special
2nd round: technical interview basic and easy
last round: on-site interview, whole day long. from 7 am to 6 p.m.
there are basically several 1-to-1 technical interview sessions. they ask very detailed technical questions, which are not hard but quite basic and fundamental.

The wolf pack is a little bit worse. But one can ask time to think. they just want to know details of one's background. No technical questions are really really hard.

They asked some of tricky, harsh questions just to put you in awkward positions so that they can see your reactions. They know you cannot answer 100% certainly. Just be gentle and very carefully about what you know and what you don't. When giving estimations, be sure to mention it's an estimation.

They also ask questions to test your IQ, but they are really easy.

During the interviews, they are also trying to find people with cypress core values, be sure to read these core values. If you don't like these core values, don't come.

except all these interviews, they also do products demo, HR introduction and you got a chance to see and talk to the CEO and all other VP. Be careful, every one of them talk very quickly.

Overall, think quick and act quick. If one has solid knowledge and graduates from Top 20 Engineering schools, I cannot understand why one cannot pass the interviews unless one does not match the desired skills.

Reason for Declining – they offer a low base salary, bonus up to around 10k, relocation fee and interesting stock options.

By estimation, one may earn up to 85k before tax(excluding the stocks). However, Cypress is harsh and requires a lot of devotion. 85k is not interesting when one is doing 1.5-2 persons' work.

But be alert if you are a foreigner, they offer great package such as green card sponsorship. Generally, they start the process 1-2 years after one starts to work. But it can be shortened to 6 month - one year.

Anyway it's not enough for me to give up my determined plan. If they offers 10k more, I will accept the offer.

Interview Details – The Interview process is very detailed with many people involved. One interesting thing is what I later learned they call a "Wolf Pack" of 3 or 4 people who rapidly fire questions at you. Still, the people are not antagonistic and the questions are realistic and reasonable. But you must be alert and think fast.

Negotiation Details – The offer package was significantly better than I expected. I did not negotiate anything.

Interview Details – Just see them in the job fair and then I showed them my resume and get the interview. they ask me to interview tmr. So I was here to wait and prepare for the interview. It seems very good. I told them that: We met two weeks ago at the Education Career Fair in Boston. I enjoyed speaking with you about ABC Charter School's mission, and the work you do with the students as a college counselor.
I wanted to reaffirm my interest in the counseling position at your school. ABC Charter School's goal of sending every student to college is one that I strongly believe in, and I know that my counseling experience and passion for working with inner-city students make me a strong candidate for the position.
I have attached an updated copy of the resume I gave you at the Education Career Fair. I will call next week to see if we can arrange a time to discuss the position together. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Interview Details – Short, informal phone interview which went well enough that a formal interview was scheduled for later. Interview and hiring process for co-ops is difficult, but is not as grueling as the full hiring process. Interview questions are generally designed to measure practical knowledge as well as gauge how well you handle difficult new situations.