Roles they hire for
- Embedded software engineer for MCU and SoC SDKs (drivers, bootloaders, RTOS)
- Software applications engineer (customer-facing, automotive CDDs)
- Staff engineer for Zephyr and cryptography drivers
What they emphasise
- Drivers, bootloaders, RTOS integration and memory and performance optimization across TI SoCs
- Bare-metal drivers and RTOS-based applications in Embedded C and C++
- Pre-silicon software design and software validation with silicon teams
- Low-level Zephyr and cryptography drivers; AUTOSAR CDDs with MCAL in automotive roles
Brush up on
Bare-metal driversBootloadersRTOS integrationCache, DMA and interconnectZephyrCrypto acceleratorsTest automation
How the rounds usually run
A typical silicon vendor loop for embedded roles. Companies vary by team and seniority.
Online assessment or screen
- C output prediction, pointers and bit manipulation
- Digital logic and OS basics
- For experienced hires, often a recruiter and hiring-manager screen instead
Example: What does this print: an unsigned char set to 200 plus 100, printed as an integer?
Technical 1: C and embedded fundamentals
- Pointers, volatile, const, alignment and endianness
- Interrupts, stacks and memory layout
- Live C coding on bit fields, ring buffers or string handling
Example: Implement a lock-free single-producer, single-consumer ring buffer.
Technical 2: Drivers and architecture
- Designing a peripheral driver and its API
- DMA, caches and interrupt priorities
- RTOS internals and debugging stories
Example: Design a SPI driver that supports blocking, interrupt and DMA modes behind one API.
Technical 3 or hiring manager: system design and projects
- Deep dive into a past project and your design choices
- System-level trade-offs: power, memory, performance
- Sometimes a short presentation on a project
Example: Walk through the hardest bug you've fixed, and what you changed in the process afterwards.
HR and behavioural
- Motivation, teamwork and conflict
- Relocation, notice period and compensation
Example: Tell me about a time you disagreed with a design decision.
Practice questions
Original questions written for Texas Instruments's focus areas, not leaked ones.
- Design a bootloader for an MCU SDK that customers can extend safely. Which parts are fixed and which are hooks?
- Your driver must run on five SoC variants with different peripheral versions. How do you structure the code?
- A customer's application runs 30% slower after enabling your DMA driver. What could cause that and how do you measure it?
- Write the init sequence for a hardware crypto accelerator driver and explain how you handle errors and key material.
- How would you automate testing of a peripheral driver across many boards in CI?
Your prep playlist
Design rounds to practise
Sources
Take an AI mock round styled on Texas Instruments, with follow-ups that probe what you missed.
Start a mock round