Embedded Software Engineering Interview Questions & Answers

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Hey all! Today I'm sharing my top 10 interview questions! Hope you enjoy them!

This video is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something I will receive a small commission.

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00​ - Intro
0:20 - Disclaimers
1:09​ - 1. Explain how the SPI works
2:02 - 2. How does a DMA work?
2:50 - 3. What is a Semaphore? How Is it different from Mutex?
3:29 - 4. How to collect data in parallel and in sync?
4:18 - 5. When and why to use keyword volatile?
5:04 - 6. What are some ways to minimize MCU power consumption?
6:36 - 7. What are the benefits of RTOS?
7:20 - 8. Should we always use an RTOS?
8:04 - 9. What to remember when writing an ISR?
8:36 - 10. What are Little and Big Endian?
9:09 - BONUS Question. What are Pull-up and Pull-Down Resistors?

Errata: “Direct Memory Access” instead of “Dynamic Memory Access” - DMA

[GreidiAjalik]

Feel free to leave your embedded software engineering interview questions in the comments below! Cheers!

[vasanthxtube]

Some of the questions that immediately came to my mind are
1) What is a race condition? What causes it and how to avoid it?
2) What happens in a startup code?
3) How does a cpu handle an interrupt?
4) what is an interrupt latency? How can it be measured?
5) What is a software interrupt?
6) what is the difference between a breakpoint and watchpoint?
7) What is meant by board bringup activity?
8) Explain a scenario where you have used a logic analyzer

[nanisaladi]

Thanks a lot for Awesome content 😊 keep going…

Some Interesting Questions:
1. multi core programming and debug
2. IoT and Embedded
3. Power management, clocks
4. role of OSI in newer communications like pcie, all wireless, usb, thunderbolt etc
5. Bus
6. Memory management, caching
7. s/w topics like - preprocessors, understanding coredumps, struct vs union
8. LLDB

Looking fwd for more videos 👍🏻

[ramprasanthudhayabaskar]

Isn't DMA, Direct Memory Access? I only heard it that way and not Dynamic Memory Access as told in the video. Or is this another name?

[djdarco]

Wow, these are some really low-level questions and you really provide great information! As an interviewer I'm much more interested in the person sitting accross me. Such as teamwork, the ability to learn new things, communication skills and so on. Technical skills and abilities are mostly already pointed out in the CV, but the non-technical skills.

I think it is also good to add that if you don't have an answer it is okay to be honest about it, not everyone knows everything and again the ability to learn is also very important.

[voytek_two_thousand]

DMA = Direct Memory Access (not Dynamic)

[buddysnackit]

They ask about what is on the data sheet? It takes like 1/2 hour to read that and understand it. Why would ANYONE memorize this.

[TuchoJL]

I really appreciate these videos. I am about to finish my degree and I want to make a career in embedded systems. Videos like this are very helpful to get an idea of ​​what I am going to face. It would be great if you continued making videos about embedded systems. Thank you!!

[slim_cana]

Nothing wrong with posting a Mutex/Semaphore in an IRQ as a signaling mechanism. Good video otherwise

[pedrovelazquez]

Im from Paraguay. I am finishing my degree in Electronics Engineering and Im surprised by the ammount of questions that I can answer in this video.
The thing with the career itself here is that there are not many jobs available for us locally. I tried applying online but I got rejected many times. Can you give some advice?

[shivas]

Love from India 💯
I just now started as a Embedded C keep doing more videos for us

[evic]

Great video! Just a little comment on cpu clock freq. on power consumption; in some cases you actually need max clock freq to achieve lower power consumption. (e.g. serve all the tasks and do all the calculations as fast as possible and go back to sleep).

[emmanuelkorankye]

Great video mate; it's difficult finding embedded systems content on YouTube. I would also like to ask if you have any books you recommend for beginners in embedded systems.

[dishakarnataki]

Why use bare metal programing when we have compiler to write a startup code and dump code in microC

[JohnSmith-pdmp]

DMA is direct memory access not dynamic.

[SpaceSurferGod]

Some questions I answered during an interview I gave recently (Embedded + OOP):

1. How do you prevent memory leaks?
2. How do you use stack?
3. When do you want to use static classes?
4. What is polymorphism and inheritance?
5. Major difference between C and Python.
6. Have you used pointers as parameters to functions?
7. How have you used interrupts in your code before?
8. How have you used watchdogtimer in your code?
9. How do you use pointers?
10. How do you use private constructors?

These mostly cover what I was asked, it is not strictly an embedded role but embedded plus general software developer role. Hopefully I'll get in!

[aishwaryashashikumar]

Hey Greidi! I'm so glad you're back with making videos regularly!
I remember you were studying at Georgia Tech part time and I'll be going there this fall for master's in ECE
Let me know where I can get in touch with you, have a lot to discuss :)

[noahbraasch]

As a computer engineering student, its great knowing some of these questions! Still have lots to learn though... haha

[randomyoutubeuser]

I have seen all of these question in the interview. good video!

[chadizdroid]

You need to provide correct and clear info.. what is miso or mosi.. DMA is Direct Memory Access ..