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Jerry Avins
Guest
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 Posted:
Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:16 pm Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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Randy Yates wrote:
| Quote: | Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes:
Rune Allnor wrote:
...
Eh... I'm not sure if "divines" is a typo or not, I don't know
the word so I interpret is as "estimates".
No, it was not a typo. I meant it in the sense of "to acquire knowlege
of through supernatural means."
"Determines" would be better. A "divining rod" is a tool often used for
dowsing.
Yes, along those lines.
We're being bitingly sarcastic, though. Perhaps Charles meant to ask
"How would you find out how many gas stations are in this town.". Or
perhaps the right answer to the question is, "I don't know," i.e.,
it's a BS detector question.
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I would answer "I don't know" to "How many gas stations are there in
this town?" I don't think it's a proper answer to "How would you go
about finding out?" I would ask an astrologer, of course. What's good
enough for Nancy Reagan is good enough for me.
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ |
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Jerry Avins
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:22 pm Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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john wrote:
| Quote: | I have been surprised to find out how many new grads don't know how
to write a simple C program, so I always require C proficiency to be
demonstrated. I'm aware of some prestigous engineering schools
that graduate EEs with no C exposure whatsoever. Instead they know
Java, C#, etc. Nice, but no use to me.
|
Suppose I answered that I'd have to look it up? I write most of my stuff
in assembler and Forth. (Of course, I _rewrite_ C programs, sometimes by
starting over. ;-]) I would sooner ask a candidate to write a short
program in his chosen language.
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ |
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Rune Allnor
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:38 pm Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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Jerry Avins wrote:
| Quote: | Randy Yates wrote:
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes:
Rune Allnor wrote:
...
Eh... I'm not sure if "divines" is a typo or not, I don't know
the word so I interpret is as "estimates".
No, it was not a typo. I meant it in the sense of "to acquire
knowlege
of through supernatural means."
"Determines" would be better. A "divining rod" is a tool often used
for
dowsing.
Yes, along those lines.
We're being bitingly sarcastic, though. Perhaps Charles meant to
ask
"How would you find out how many gas stations are in this town.".
Or
perhaps the right answer to the question is, "I don't know," i.e.,
it's a BS detector question.
I would answer "I don't know" to "How many gas stations are there in
this town?" I don't think it's a proper answer to "How would you go
about finding out?" I would ask an astrologer, of course. What's good
enough for Nancy Reagan is good enough for me.
|
Sure. Start out with a "guesstimate" to find a base number if pushed
*very* hard to produce one, check with e.g. the yellow pages in the
phone book, or a register of commercial enterprises (I don't know
the proper term in English), if given the oportunity.
As for Mrs Reagan... well, a few years ago there was a Norwegian
secretary of Church Affairs, Education and Research (CAER) whose
formal education was seven - 7 - years of primary school. This guy
boldly stated hew was as capable as anybody else to run the academic
system here. He might well have been right - his companion secretary
of communications did not hold a driver's licence and was known
to be somewhat reluctant to travel by aeroplane.
No credits are given to those who guess the religious orientation
of the political party the secretary of CAER represented.
Rune |
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john
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:30 pm Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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Jerry Avins wrote:
| Quote: | john wrote:
I have been surprised to find out how many new grads don't know how
to write a simple C program, so I always require C proficiency to
be
demonstrated. I'm aware of some prestigous engineering schools
that graduate EEs with no C exposure whatsoever. Instead they know
Java, C#, etc. Nice, but no use to me.
Suppose I answered that I'd have to look it up? I write most of my
stuff
in assembler and Forth. (Of course, I _rewrite_ C programs, sometimes
by
starting over. ;-]) I would sooner ask a candidate to write a short
program in his chosen language.
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can
get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ |
I would accept another lower-level language, but not something like
Matlab. On several occasions I've asked an applicant (new grad) to
write a loop in C to perform FIR filtering, sometimes without using
floating point math. A common answer is "I know how to do it in
Matlab", to which I reply that we do not compile Matlab code into our
products.
There questions for which answering "I don't know, but here's where I'd
find out ..." is not good enough. If a candidate can't write a simple
program in a low-level language on the spot, odds are then haven't done
much programming and aren't any good at it.
John |
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Jerry Avins
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Jan 08, 2005 2:35 am Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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john wrote:
...
| Quote: | There questions for which answering "I don't know, but here's where I'd
find out ..." is not good enough. If a candidate can't write a simple
program in a low-level language on the spot, odds are then haven't done
much programming and aren't any good at it.
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Yeah. A guy who want an excuse not to hire me -- the boss had told him
to -- asked me in the "interview" how to program integer division on a
Z-80 (16-bit dividend, 8-bit quotient and divisor). I wrote the code in
front of him using only two registers (the quotient is shifted in as the
divisor is shifted out). He seemed impressed -- I later learned
disappointed -- that I "knew the trick". I was hired to design hardware,
but I'm a generalist.
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ |
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siddharth.vaghela@gmail.c
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Jan 12, 2005 5:34 pm Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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well i guess since i started the post i shuld get in a word abt wht
happened wrt my interview :D
well i got the job :D... and it wasnt an easy interview at all.
i was grilled on the following things:
1. characteristics of speech signals, and their use in recognition
2. c programming concepts - function ptrs, type casting
3. c++ concepts - virtual functions, vtables, type casting, ambiguity
resolution and polymorphism
4. i also had to explain errors in c/c++ code.
5. general questions abt polynomial multiplication and efficient ways
to do it
6. some very difficult questions on random processes and ergodicity.
well though i thought i didnt do quite well in the technical interview,
apparently they thought i did :D
so yes now i am a software engineer in embedded systems.
wow it feels good to be employed :D
siddharth |
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Jerry Avins
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:02 pm Post subject:
Re: need interview questions for a DSP based embedded system |
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siddharth.vaghela@gmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | well i guess since i started the post i shuld get in a word abt wht
happened wrt my interview :D
well i got the job :D... and it wasnt an easy interview at all.
i was grilled on the following things:
1. characteristics of speech signals, and their use in recognition
2. c programming concepts - function ptrs, type casting
3. c++ concepts - virtual functions, vtables, type casting, ambiguity
resolution and polymorphism
4. i also had to explain errors in c/c++ code.
5. general questions abt polynomial multiplication and efficient ways
to do it
6. some very difficult questions on random processes and ergodicity.
well though i thought i didnt do quite well in the technical interview,
apparently they thought i did :D
so yes now i am a software engineer in embedded systems.
wow it feels good to be employed :D
siddharth
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That's great! If my sense of you is accurate, it won't go to your head,
as they say. The most important pieces of knowledge you have are what
your limits are, and how far it's reasonable to push beyond them.
I flunked the midterm in thermodynamics (so did many others) but thought
I had done well enough on the final to pass the course. It turned out I
got an A! A year or so later, I had the chance to ask the prof what my
final grade had been. He told me: 65. So I asked him how that rated an
A. He answered "Highest mark in the class."
Congratulations! Good luck.
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ |
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