I was approached by a recruiter from Cambridge. The overall interview process took 3-4 weeks as it was split into 3 phases.
Phase 1: Telephonic / remote coding round: This round was to introduce you to the job, with details on the job description and day-to-day work. It also consisted of few basic Embedded software engineering questions and 1-2 C programming questions which were to be performed on an IDE.
Phase 2: C Programming/problem solving: I was given a programming question, which I had to finish in a week's time and submit the code for assessment.
Phase 3: Remote face to face round:
This round lasted slightly more than half a day. I was called to one of the local offices, from where I was interviewed by multiple people across 2 rounds.
Round 1 was for 3 hours. This was focused on embedded system design, development, C programming questions, live coding on an IDE, code analysis for debugging, and a very very few questions from your CV/domain experience too.
Round 2 was for around 1 hour: Mostly behavioral, team fit and leadership questions.
Ups:
- Throughout the interview process, the interviewers very very polite, professional and friendly. They made sure that I was comfortable, and was able to understand the questions. They answered all my questions and provided enough information about how the business unit works, what are the day-to-day activities of the team etc.
- The recruiters were also very helpful and responsive, they respond almost immediately, they schedule rounds well in advance so that you can plan accordingly. They also provided feedback which is a bit rare in this industry.
Downs:
This has been my persistent observation with a few ARM interviews, and the only (and only) down what I saw, in the process, that, the interview was not focused on the CV/domain experience at all. They had some set of pre-determined questions, which were in core embedded system related. I was being interviewed for a display/graphics/GPU position, but there was hardly any questions in these areas in any of the interview rounds. This was unfortunate, as this is what I have been doing full time, since the last 5-10 years, so it's like being robbed of your strengths and asked to perform in some other areas.
But overall it was a very positive experience.
