HeapCrash / Challenges / Logging over UART with DMA

Logging over UART with DMA

Called from several FreeRTOS tasks. Logs come out garbled, and some lines are missing entirely.

The code

Embedded C for Cortex-M. It compiles. There are 3 real bugs in it: the kind that pass a bench test and fail in the field.

void log_send(const char *fmt, ...)
{
    char buf[128];
    va_list ap;
    va_start(ap, fmt);
    vsnprintf(buf, sizeof buf, fmt, ap);
    va_end(ap);
    HAL_UART_Transmit_DMA(&huart2, (uint8_t *)buf, strlen(buf));
}

What an interviewer expects

The bugs, reference fixes and the follow-up question are in the practice app, after you've tried it.

Companies that test this

Matched on the skills each company's embedded roles emphasise.

Related challenges

Flag the lines, say what breaks, then fix it and build it with clang in your browser.

Find the bugs