MathWorks Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at MathWorks in May 2015.

Interview

I applied online, they reached back within 10 hours. We set up a phone interview, which was about 20 minutes and included only behavioral questions and details about the program. We scheduled a technical interview for a week later. The technical interview had exactly the same question as others have mentioned, and I felt like it went really well! I answered all ~50 questions questions but 2.
After about a day and a half i got an update on the Mathworks career site, that the "match wasnt ideal". So good luck guys and gals!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To get ready for this interview, i have compiled a list of all interview question from Glassdoor. So here it is:

"private", "static", "final",finalize, finally
fibonacci series
C++ syntax
java syntax
define...
pigeonhole principle
triangle inequality
... okay, what about the cauchy swarz ineqality
(A intersect B) union C)
P union (P intersect Q) <=> Q is a tautology?
P vs NP
P vs NP related to turing machines
countable vs uncountable sets
diagonlization
what's a FSM and a non-D FSM
are they convertible
local vs global scope
why are global scope variables bad?
what are static variables?
how are they related to memory allocation?
what's a recursive function
example of recursive ffunction
what is OOP, in your own words
advantages of OOP?
"antyhing else? What about polymorphism
what is a linkedlist, any advantages?
what's a hash function?
good properties fo hash function
directed acyclic graph vs tree
what is O(n) function
if f=O(n), g=O(n!), then f+g is…
f=O(n), g= O(n^2), f*g (times, not composite is)
what is include<stdio.h>
"stdio" vs <stdio>
#define x=100
what's a typedef?
why use header files in C++
why inline functions in C++?
struct vs class
Exceptions in C++
Basic OOP concepts (inheritance, encapsulation, recursion, polymorphism)
-Storage Classes
-Inline Functions
-How NULL differs in different languages
how to use commandline in C++
why are pointers useful and why
what's a null pointer
what's void pointer
malloc calloc
what is a virtual function
what is a default constructor?
JDK vs JRE?
platforms and JVM?
applet vs application
import java.lang.String vs java.lang.*
final keywords
java commandline
-Call by Value vs by Reference
-Break vs Continue
-Exception Handling
Java == vs equalsTo
what's a abstract class
Garbage Collection/Memory Management
what is a default constructor in java?

They gave a few examples of code where a lot of variables were given the same name in different scopes/different classes that form some hierarchy and then asked what a test driver accessing variables by those names would do.

Math, Algebra, Matrix operations, Differential equations, Programming, C, Matlab, Signal Processing
like inverse of matrix, matlab output on screen
explain hashtables
unary operators. bitshift operators
DSP
limits and differential equations
Partial diff
Signal Processing (Z transforms, cont. and disc time systems, stability etc)
What is an integral?
What is a derivative?

 Signal Processing:

What is continuous time system? What is a discrete time system? How do you convert one to the other?
What is an LTI system? What is causality?
Relationship between Z transform and Fourier transform
Z transform of a given impulse response? Is it casual?
Given a Z transform, is it stable?
Given an impluse response, is the system stable?
What are random processes?
What is a PSD?
What does PSD of white noise look like?

How to speed up the matrix assembling process?

Recursive Functions?
Pointers?
Null Pointer?
Difference between & and * ?
malloc? Precautions?
how would you add path in command line?
How you save a variable in a mat file?
How you save some specific variables in a mat file?
How you open these data?
How can you see the type of a variable?
How can you do the inverse of a matrix?
How you do the transpose of a matrix?
What A.*B does?
What A*B does?
What A.’ does?
What A.^-1 does?
What A’ does?
How you find help in MATLAB?
How you plot a variable?
What is a script?
What is a function?
What is a derivative?
What is an integral?
What is the relationship between integral and derivative?
What is an eigenvalues?
What is an eigenvector?

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at MathWorks (Natick, MA) in April 2015.

Interview

Consists of a prescreening phone interview where they ask you some "getting to know you" questions. They then give you the choice between a few different language (C/C++,Java,HTML,Javascript) to choose from for the technical interview. Choose two. I actually chose C/C++, and MATLAB since I use MATLAB daily and have been programming in C/C++ for over a decade. Main thing is, choose the two languages you're MOST comfortable with.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at MathWorks (Racine, WI) in June 2015.

Interview

I only had a non-technical phone interview so far, but it was fairly straight forward. It took about 15 minutes with most of the time being taken up by the questions I asked. We scheduled the next stage as soon as we were done talking, which is a technical interview over the phone.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at MathWorks.

Interview

I applied on Mathwork's career page for associate software engineer. Started off with a simple phone interview telling me about the company and asking me about my background. Then they contacted me a week later to set up a technical interview. Was average difficulty just make sure you brush up on everything before the technical interview.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at MathWorks.

Interview

Went through a recruiter.

First interview was like other interviews posted on glassdoor, interviewers basically asked a bunch of questions from a list , and typed answers into a computer.

I was kind of frustrated that they asked this, but they said they were looking to change it in the future (so this post is in hopes that they will :)

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at MathWorks.

Interview

I applied online through MathWorks career page. I was contacted within 24 hours for a 30 minute an interview with HR. HR was very nice and supportive and immediately wanted to schedule a technical "interview". It turned out this was more of a test because there was no response from the interviewer in terms of satisfaction of my responses (he typed my responses into a computer to be reviewed later) and could not inform me of my "score". There were question on everything from C and Java (mostly syntax and language basics, not high level design ideas or patterns) to basic logic and set theory.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at MathWorks.

Interview

HR Interview (~15? mins), Technical Interview (45 mins), Onsite Interview (2hrs technical + discussions with 2 HR staff).
In terms of overall structure of interview (not the questions themselves), the interview process was very standard. You should expect some typical behavioral interview questions.

The technical interviews had an unusual emphasis on knowledge of syntax instead of knowledge of programming concepts. I'm not saying it's unacceptable to do that, but be prepared for these interviews as they were not like any of my other software engineer interviews.

There were some math questions, and my choice of two from C/C++, Java, Web Dev of which I chose the former two.
Questions touched on
-Pigeonhole Principle
-NFAs/DFAs
-Basic Set Theory
-Probability/Counting

-Virtual Functions
-Structs, Classes
-Pointers, References
-Stacks
-Arrays
-Basic OOP concepts (inheritance, encapsulation, recursion, polymorphism)
-Storage Classes
-Inline Functions
-How NULL differs in different languages
-JRE and JDK
-Garbage Collection/Memory Management
-Definitions/Import (Typedef, Meaning of #, <>, "")
-Scope
-Searching/Sorting algorithms
-Call by Value vs by Reference
-Break vs Continue
-Exception Handling

A lot of questions where you are presented with egregiously erroneous or incorrect code and expected to be able to tell what they do and how certain fixes would change that.
They gave a few examples of code where a lot of variables were given the same name in different scopes/different classes that form some hierarchy and then asked what a test driver accessing variables by those names would do.
I later found by testing by hand that I did not completely answer these correctly, but I don't know why they would penalize me for not being able to answer questions about something I could figure out in a few minutes if I were on a computer at the time.

It is at least my opinion that there was too much emphasis on questions where I was not asked to write any code or design an algorithm. Obviously a programmer should also have knowledge of the basics, but is the goal to find someone who can regurgitate definitions from a textbook or someone who writes code?

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at MathWorks.

Interview

First Round:
Personal questions about background and experience.
Technical questions were pretty basic - pointers, object-oriented stuff, recursion, java basics, c++ basics, some basic data structures stuff

No coding stuff (except maybe showing an example of a concept... e.g. recursion)

Made it to second round... but have not yet completed it.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at MathWorks in October 2014.

Interview

After submitting the application, I was contacted within 24 hours for a 30-minute behavioral phone interview with HR. Questions were usual with nothing unexpected. I was immediately asked to do a technical phone interview and made an appointment for the following week. The interview took about an hour and covered programming concepts extensively.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at MathWorks (Natick, MA) in May 2014.

Interview

I applied online through their website and got an E-mail for a HR interview after a few days. It was a video interview and I could take it anytime in the next couple of weeks.
The interview was recorded and they asked me five questions. I was given 20 seconds to prepare my answer and 2 minutes to record it immediately after that.
Questions:
Why do you want to be a part of the EDG program?
What qualities and skills make you perfect for the job?
Give an example of a time you had work on multiple projects and how did you approach it?
What is your cumulative GPA?
F-1 opt start date and work authorization in USA?

I got a mail couple of days later for the next phone interview. I am waiting for the result of that one.

Interview Questions