Embedded Software Engineer interview questions and answers
This set of Embedded Software Engineer interview questions is designed to help you identify skilled candidates to manage your embedded software development lifecycle.
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Embedded Software Engineer Interview Questions
Embedded Software Engineers design, develop and install software solutions to meet company needs. They are responsible for building high-quality, fully functional embedded software systems, aligned with coding and design standards.
During your interview process, you should focus on your candidates’ hands on experience with software engineering and coding techniques. Ask them about hardware management, OS system configuration and debugging code. As with any technical role, it’s useful to include an assignment to test your candidates’ relevant skills with a real project.
Your ideal candidates should combine theoretical knowledge with a continuous interest in technology developments. Keep an eye out for candidates who show a desire to learn new things, by participating in seminars and hackathons or contributing to open source software projects.
Computer Science questions
- What’s RISC architecture?
- What are the differences between analytical and computational modeling?
- Why is it better to use multi-threading polling instead of a single threading model?
- Can you name the differences between object-oriented and component-based design?
Role-specific questions
- How can you reduce memory requirements in embedded systems?
- If a system goes blank, how do you debug it?
- Why would you choose Java in embedded systems?
- What software configuration management tools are you familiar working with?
- Can you name any code testing tools?
- Give an example of troubleshooting on embedded targets. Explain the process step-by-step.
- What’s your experience with technical documentation?
- How can you ensure that debugging a program while it’s being used will not affect its functionality?
- Are you familiar with design patterns? What design software have you used and in what situations?
- How do you identify hardware errors?
- How can you optimize the I/O performance?
- What’s your experience with QA engineering?
Behavioral questions
- What are the most common errors you’ve found in embedded systems and how have you resolved them?
- How do you learn about the latest technology trends?
- Describe a time when you collaborated with designers and engineers to deploy a new product. What was your role?
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