We use a coding test that is more like a trivia puzzle quiz about cursed language syntax and bare metal embedded concepts. Bit squashing puzzles, casting structs to unions with byte byte alignments quirks.
On the surface its even more contrived than leetcode. But it has a few benefits;
1. Harder to memorise and prepare for.
2. Harder to ask LLMs.
3. Checks formal schooling or detailed interest in the topic.
learning C with toy projects wont make you perform in this quiz. Spending dedicated effort reading about the inner workings of malloc, RTOS, chipset datasheets, and electronics may.
Many of the questions check understanding beyond the syntax, often one level of abstraction down. For embedded this works nicely. The higher level system design thinking is not applicable to us. We look for people with the mindset and interest to debug the most absure behavior quirks of the hardware when the code misbehave.
But for other fields in think this would falls appart. This particular works for bare metal embedded.
(... i think our interview process may be selecting for ASD as a sideffect)
On the surface its even more contrived than leetcode. But it has a few benefits;
1. Harder to memorise and prepare for.
2. Harder to ask LLMs.
3. Checks formal schooling or detailed interest in the topic.
learning C with toy projects wont make you perform in this quiz. Spending dedicated effort reading about the inner workings of malloc, RTOS, chipset datasheets, and electronics may.
Many of the questions check understanding beyond the syntax, often one level of abstraction down. For embedded this works nicely. The higher level system design thinking is not applicable to us. We look for people with the mindset and interest to debug the most absure behavior quirks of the hardware when the code misbehave.
But for other fields in think this would falls appart. This particular works for bare metal embedded.
(... i think our interview process may be selecting for ASD as a sideffect)