KLA Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 654 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Which role are you interviewing for?
30 roles · 654 reportsCandidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at KLA.
KLA
Research Scientist Intern
Intern Average Positive experience No offer 1 round
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Behavioral
I had an online interview with the hiring manager, which was primarily technical. We mostly discussed my PhD research and previous work. The manager was very engaged and polite, effectively guiding my responses and encouraging deeper thought. He asked two prepared questions, but many of the questions were follow-ups based on my research and my answers during the interview.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- How would you tackle a problem where you have noisy measurements of y derived from a physics-based model y = f(x), and the goal is to find the underlying x values or labels?
- What are the reasons for the widespread use of mean squared error compared to absolute error or errors with higher powers?
KLA
Systems Engineer
Mid Difficult Negative experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Background check
Interview formats
Technical Behavioral
The recruiter was easy to work with initially, but the technical interview was really something else. The hiring manager asked me a lot about my current employer's published designs. Even though the info was public, I felt the interview was super inappropriate. Instead of asking about hypothetical situations or my general engineering methods, physics basics, or problem-solving skills, they just kept asking about the specifics of my company's designs. There's definitely a better, more professional way to do a technical interview to see what a candidate can really do. To make it worse, the interviewer cut the call off exactly on time because they had another meeting. They didn't introduce the role, what they expect, or anything about the team culture, and I didn't get a chance to ask any questions. I told HR about the weird interview style, but they just sent a generic rejection email and ignored my feedback.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you introduce your experience?
- Could you provide some details related to your current employer's published designs?
KLA
Electrical Engineer
Mid Average Positive experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Presentation Panel
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical Presentation
The interview process consisted of two rounds. First, there was a one-on-one zoom call with the supervisor for the role. The second and final round involved a technical presentation given to a group of about five managers and a director. This presentation was meant to showcase the skills needed for the job and how previous experiences helped in completing tasks and achieving goals for the position. Following the presentation, other managers asked questions for about half an hour each, totaling around 3-4 hours, and then gave feedback on the presentation.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you detail your experience with FPGAs and I/O standard protocols like PCIE/SPI/I2C?
- Have you worked with change order requests before?
KLA
Software Engineer Intern
Intern Average Positive experience Accept offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Technical screen Recruiter call Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Coding Behavioral
After I applied, I got an email for an interview. The first round was technical, involving a LeetCode easy-medium heap question. For most candidates, the next and final round is with a manager, which is more behavioral and includes some general technical questions about pointers and memory. You should know about KLA and your reasons for wanting to join them.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Why do you want to join KLA?
- What is your understanding of KLA?
- Can you solve a LeetCode easy-medium question about heaps?
KLA Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from KLA interview reports.
“You are given a binary string S of '0's and '1's. Your task is to move all '1's to the rightmost positions while keeping their original relative order. The cost for moving is calculated as follows: choosing a '1' costs 1 unit, and each step to move a '1' one position to the right costs 1 unit. A '1' cannot be moved if the adjacent right position is already filled with another '1'. Also, you cannot select a '1' that is unable to move. What is the maximum time required to move all the '1's to the end?”
Read reports →“Given 25 horses and a maximum of 5 horses per race, what is the minimum number of races needed to determine the top 3 fastest horses?”
Read reports →“Can you sort Roman numerals based on their value when given as a string?”
Read reports →“Can you determine the frequency of words in a stream given a list of words?”
Read reports →“Given a set of arrays, perform the OR operation through the array where one of the consecutive numbers is missing.”
Read report →“What are the reasons for the widespread use of mean squared error compared to absolute error or errors with higher powers?”
Read report →“What measures can be taken to prevent high frequency signals from causing issues on a PCB?”
Read report →“Can you write a C function that takes a byte and counts the number of set bits (ones) in it?”
Read report →“How would you implement a deep copy of a linked list in C++?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 654 KLA interview reports.