Synapse Product Development Embedded Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process had 3 parts. First, I spoke with a recruiter. Then, I did an online interview where they looked at my C knowledge. Finally, they flew me out for a 4 hour interview. The recruiter was helpful, and we went over my resume together to improve it. The online interviewer was quick and easy. The in-person interview was pretty average; the people were nice overall, but a few of the interviewers were a bit curt.

They have a nice hiring process. First, a simple coding exercise with the application. Then, a phone screen about C++, RTOSes, mutexes, and Synapse culture. Next, a coding question on collabedit.com, a simple C linked list problem, followed by discussion. This was followed by a full-loop interview that had three phases. The first phase was with a senior engineer. It involved discussing my work (1/3), coding on a whiteboard (a basic data structure question, then adding a new requirement) (1/3), and discussing my concerns about layoffs and work-life balance (1/3). The second phase was a technical discussion with two engineers about testing, memory management, and their work environments. The third phase was a non-technical discussion with three engineers to see if we could get along and how I present myself. I liked that they focused on intangible aspects and team fit. The whole process took 3.5 weeks.

So, when I applied, the first thing they had us do was submit some code. After that, we had an online coding test. It had two problems, and we had three hours to finish them. The problems were pretty simple.