Silicon Labs

Role: Software Engineer Internship

College: NIT Agartala

Interview Date: Early 2023

Interview Type: On-Campus (Virtual Onboarding)

Result: Not Specified (experience shared as a general process)

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Embedded C Programming, IoT, Data Structures (Bubble Sort), Algorithms, Machine Level Logic (Assembly code), Python (tuples, dictionaries, OOPS concepts), Microprocessors (interrupt, Diode, transistor, Heap memory, Stack memory), Projects discussion, College extracurricular activities, HR questions.

Experience:

Silicon Labs visited NIT Agartala for virtual onboarding for Internship Opportunities. There were three rounds in total: Resume Shortlisting, two Technical Interviews, and a final HR Round.

Round 1 (Resume Shortlisting): This round was based on the candidate's current CGPA, project work, and field of interest.

Round 2 (Technical Interview): The interviewer started with a general greeting and asked for an introduction. The candidate walked through their resume, providing short explanations for each part. They were then asked to explain their projects, their functionality, and real-world effectiveness. The interviewer expected a live demo, which the candidate unfortunately didn't have.

Following project discussions, the interview moved to a coding section. The candidate was given an array of 20 elements and asked to sort it. They used bubble sort (O(n^2)) and explained the logic, including how elements were swapping in iterations. Instead of asking for optimization, the interviewer asked if the logic could be written at a machine level (Assembly code), which the candidate was unable to answer.

Since Python was mentioned on the resume, questions about Python concepts like tuples, dictionaries, and OOPS were asked. Further technical questions covered microprocessors (interrupts, Diode, transistor concepts, Heap and Stack memory). The interviewer also inquired about college extracurricular activities, specifically the candidate's participation in Robocon 2022, asking them to explain the journey, learnings, and competition experience. The interviewer concluded this round by asking if the candidate genuinely wanted to join Silicon Labs, given that their project tech stacks were not typically used by the company.

Round 3 (HR Round): This round was described as a normal conversation covering interests and basic non-technical questions. Questions included self-introduction, future plans if not selected by Silicon Labs, what comes to mind when their name is called, strengths, where they see themselves in 5 years, and family background. They also asked about potential difficulties in relocating to Hyderabad for the internship and full-time role.

Key takeaways from this experience emphasized having fair knowledge about the company's work and tech stacks, and in-depth knowledge of everything mentioned on the resume.