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QUALCOMM Software Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews

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Web: www.qualcomm.com | HQ: San Diego, CA

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Updated Feb 6, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.

Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 39 ratings

3.1

“Average” Interview

Interview Experience [?] Based on 39 ratings

Positive	51%
Neutral	41%
Negative	8%

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3.0

Average Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Feb 2012 (took a day)

First Round (Telephonic) : Basics of LTE and LTE TDD , RTOS concepts , a question on C programming, Q format conversions.

In person Round 1 : RTOS concepts, LTE L1 system architecture, embedded C questions mainly on bit operations,priority inversion, WDT,Paging concepts,Reentrant functions,Hard and Soft real time systems and wireless domain specific questions.

The c questions were:

1. To set 'N' bits in a number efficiently , N is a variable.
2. Find the number of SET bits (1s) in a given number.
3. Q format conversion.
4. Bit field structures.
5. How to find whether a DSP is Little endian or big endian?

In person Round 2 : Fempto cell systems since I worked on it.

In person Round 3: Wireless communication basics and LTE basics , mainly from 3GPP specifications.

HR Round : Was a formality and I was told feedback would be given after a week .

Interview Questions

To set 'N' bits in a number efficiently , N is a variable.

View Answers (3)

Other Details

I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

2.0

Easy Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Nov 2011 (took 2 weeks)

The culture seems super chill. I got 2 phone interviews with HR reps, and they said if they wanted to move on I would get an interview with an engineer. This didn't happen. My phone interviews had barely any technical questions, and I would have loved to do some to show my worth.

Interview Questions

Why do you want to work for Qualcomm?

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jan 2011 in San Diego, CA (took 2 weeks)

2 phone interviews. Person apologized for not having a chance to look at my resume before hand because he was busy. Asked me a bunch of questions on hardware and things irrelevant for what I was applying to, then dumbed down the questions significantly to the point I was being treated like a child. 2nd interviewer was far more standard with traditional interview questions more in line with software engineering interview.

Interview Questions

How do you tell if a linked list has a loop?

View Answers (1)

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Dec 2011 (took a day)

It's a two back to back phone interview, it's a embedded software dev position in the CDMA division.
The questions are:
1. Diff between big/small endian
2. TLB and MMU concept in CPU and OS
3. which kind of variable store in stack/heap
4. when OS do scheduling
5. Diff between real time OS and Linux
6. volatile keyword in C

Interview Questions

Diff between big/small endian

Answer Question

TLB and MMU concept in CPU and OS

Answer Question

which kind of variable store in stack/heap

View Answers (1)

when OS do scheduling

Answer Question

Diff between real time OS and Linux

Answer Question

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Dec 2011 (took 2+ weeks)

Applied through the company's website, and received the email about the phone interview after about 1 months. The first run consisted of a phone 1:1 interview. You should have a strong math and programming skills. They first went through your resume and asked a lot of questions about your resume, then they asked some questions about elementary math and programming.

Interview Questions

How to define a struct variable in C and how many ways to initialize it.

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through a Staffing Agency and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Dec 2011 (took a day)

at the beginning, the interviewer asked some questions based on my resume. Then he asked some problems about C language. Those questions are basic.

Interview Questions

How to detect a loop in link list

Answer Question

Other Details

The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Declined Offer

Interviewed Oct 2010 in Boulder, CO (took 3 weeks)

Interviewers are very cordial and asked good and relevant questions. Initially had a phone followed followed by on site interview. In total I had 6 rounds of interview. Interview started in the morning and lasted till evening.

Interview Questions

datastructures and algorithms

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jul 2011 in London, England (United Kingdom) (took a day)

Telephonic-->F2F--> HR

There was some mis-communication between HR and tech manager. She passed on the wrong profile. Manager just asked me what happens when mobile is turned on.

Interview Questions

What happens when mobile is switched on

View Answers (1)

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jun 2011 (took 2+ weeks)

Applied online. The recruiter called after a month and set up a technical interview. Some basic question about C, C++ and a couple of simple algorithms.

After about a week, got a call for onsite. I had 5 technical interviews mostly all senior managers and a director. They wanted somebody with a strong background on C as they only work on very low-level software. I am more of an application software person and like object-oriented languages more :)

So, didnt do well in the interviews and as expected got the reject next week.

You should have a good C and understanding and also playing with raw kernel

Interview Questions

mutex, semaphores, locks

Answer Question

power of any number, find endianess, device drivers, perl regex

Answer Question

Other Details

The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jul 2011 in San Diego, CA (took 5 weeks)

I have applied online and received a call from HR in 5 days. Then a phone interview was scheduled within a week and after clearing it, an onsite was scheduled after 3 weeks.

Phone Interview Questions :
Brief me about your resume
Explain Thesis project
Basic OS concepts like concurrency, IPC

Onsite Interview :
Work Experience projects
Basic C and C++ : strings, virtual functions
Bit manipulation
OS Concepts
Power related Embedded concepts

People were understandable and encouraging .....