Synaptics Firmware Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 9 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Synaptics.
Synaptics
Firmware Engineer
Mid Difficult Positive experience Decline offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Behavioral
Got referred by a friend, then the recruiter reached out to understand my situation and set up a phone interview two weeks later. The phone interview covered topics like RS232, SPI, data memory alignment, USB, and RTOS. I felt like I didn't do great, but the hiring manager mentioned they don't expect everyone to know everything. Later, the recruiter told me the HM recommended me for an onsite interview.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Could you explain what data memory alignment is?
- Can you explain priority inversion and how to solve it, followed by a question on priority inheritance and its implementation?
- What are the differences between SPI and I2C?
Synaptics
Firmware Engineer
Mid Easy Neutral experience Decline offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Coding Presentation Behavioral
I got a recruiter call from Synaptics and then had two phone interviews, which were pretty standard firmware questions about things like threads, task schedulers, interrupts, semaphores, and watchdog timers. After the phone interviews, I had an all-day on-site review where I met seven people from the team. This included lunch and questions about writing C code for bit manipulations, drawing digital circuits, how a boot loader works, and the trade-offs between I2C and SPI.
Confirmed questions1 question
- What is your ethnicity and age?
Synaptics
Firmware Engineer
Entry Average Accept offer 1 round
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Offer
Interview formats
Technical Behavioral
The hiring manager reached out directly. I had a single 45-minute phone interview. They asked about volatile variables, my resume, my academic projects, and some basic C programming questions about pointers and arrays. I felt good about my answers. I got the offer the week after. I negotiated the offer, and they agreed to my terms.
Confirmed questions5 questions
- Could you explain the concept of a volatile variable?
- Tell me about your resume.
- Can you discuss your academic projects?
Synaptics Firmware Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Synaptics interview reports.
“How can you invert every bit in a byte? For instance, 0x55 should become 0xAA.”
Read reports →“How can you print out 2^64 in decimal on a 64-bit machine?”
Read reports →“What are the differences between SPI and I2C?”
Read reports →“Could you explain the concept of a volatile variable?”
Read reports →“How would you design a calculator using function pointers?”
Read report →“How would you optimize array algorithms for both memory and speed?”
Read report →“Could you explain what data memory alignment is?”
Read report →“Can you explain bit manipulation?”
Read report →“What is your ethnicity and age?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 9 Synaptics interview reports.