Qualcomm Verification Engineer Interview Guide

The phone screening typically lasts for about 1 hour and serves as the initial step to assess your qualifications.

The interview often starts with introductory questions like "Tell me about yourself" and inquiries about your professional experiences. You will likely be asked to discuss your past projects related to verification engineering—your role in them, the challenges you faced, and the outcomes you achieved.

You can also expect basic technical questions related to test bench components bench architecture—and other questions assessing your foundational knowledge in verification engineering.

The phone call interview typically spans one hour where a Qualcomm engineer delves into various technical aspects. Candidates are often tasked with designing coverage classes for the Advanced High-performance Bus (AHB) and creating assertions specific to AHB. You might also be asked to draw waveforms, demonstrating your understanding of signal behavior and timing diagrams in digital designs. 

System Verilog (SV) basics will likely be covered, including topics such as data types, procedural blocks, and concurrency control constructs. Expect questions related to the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), focusing on UVM components and sequences. There will also be general digital design questions that examine your understanding of concepts like synchronous and asynchronous logic, clock domains, and data path design. Additionally, similar expertise in programming and testing could be valuable for the Google Android Engineer and Doordash iOS Engineer roles.

Example Questions:

• Can you draw a timing diagram illustrating the behaviour of a flip-flop in a synchronous digital design?
• Describe how you would create a coverage class to ensure comprehensive testing of an AHB interface.
• Write an assertion to check for a specific condition in an AHB transaction.
• Explain the differences between blocking and non-blocking assignments in SystemVerilog.
• What are the key components of the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), and how are they used in the verification process?
• Walk me through the basics of clock domain crossing (CDC) in digital design.
• How do you model a finite state machine (FSM) in SystemVerilog?
• How do you model a finite state machine (FSM) in SystemVerilog?
• Describe the purpose of a UVM sequence and how it interacts with other UVM components.
• What is the significance of a setup and hold time in digital design, and how do you ensure they are met?
• Can you provide an example of an assertion that checks for proper data alignment in an AHB transaction?

The onsite round of Qualcomm's Verification Engineer interview process is a comprehensive evaluation that typically spans multiple rounds (7-8 in total), each lasting about 1 hour. 

1. Technical Rounds: You'll encounter various rounds that delve into different aspects of the verification engineer role. These may include:
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2. Coding Interviews: You need to be prepared for technical questions that touch on electronics, software languages (especially C++), and algorithms. These questions may include discussions on abstract classes and array-based problem-solving. For example, similar coding challenges can also be encountered in interviews for roles such as the Amazon Android Engineer and the Google Verification Engineer.
   
3. Behavioral and Personality-based Questions: Certain rounds will focus on your behavioral traits and how well you'd fit into Qualcomm's culture. Questions related to your past experiences and team dynamics, which are similar to the behavioral questions asked in the Amazon Business Analyst and Meta Quantitative UX Researcher interviews. You might encounter questions such as:
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4. Brain Teaser Puzzles: Toward the end of the onsite interviews, you may encounter puzzle questions that span various domains, including mathematics and geometry. These puzzles are designed to assess your problem-solving skills and ability to think critically under pressure.
   For practice, you might find similar brain teasers useful for roles such as the Facebook Network Engineer.

Interview Questions

1. Explain the advantages of using SystemVerilog over traditional Verilog in verification.
2. How would you verify a complex pipelined processor design?
3. Discuss the trade-offs between code coverage and functional coverage in a verification plan.
4. How do you verify connectivity of an interface to memory with 6 bits of address and 6 bits of data? Show me a program that will write, read, and verify the connectivity.
5. How do you verify a 32-bit adder?
6. Design an alarm clock and provide the block diagrams.
7. Identify the circuit to which a given FSM corresponds.
8. Describe the major instructions that should be included in a new microcontroller.
9. Can you share one challenging project you worked on?
10. Describe a conflict you had in your research and how you resolved it.
11. Describe the tests that need to be performed on memory.
12. Shuffle an array.
13. Given an array, write a program to generate a random permutation of array elements.
14. Shuffle a deck of cards or randomize a given array.
15. Interrupt Mask Register (10 bits) - Each bit corresponds to 1 interrupt.
16. Interrupt Log Register (10 bits) - Each bit corresponds to 1 interrupt.