Embedded Linux: interview prep

Interview questions

Key points for each answer are in the app's question bank.

1. What separates kernel space from user space?Basic
2. Outline a Linux character driver.Intermediate
3. What is a device tree, and how does a driver use it?Intermediate
4. What happens in a platform driver's probe function?Intermediate
5. Top half versus bottom half: how does Linux defer interrupt work?Intermediate
6. Spinlock versus mutex in the kernel: when do you use each?Intermediate
7. Why must drivers use copy_from_user instead of dereferencing user pointers?Intermediate
8. Compare sysfs, ioctl and character device read/write for a driver interface.Intermediate
9. Describe a typical embedded Linux boot sequence.Basic
10. What are Yocto layers and recipes?Intermediate
11. What is cross-compilation, and what's in a toolchain?Basic
12. How do you debug a kernel oops?Intermediate
13. kmalloc versus vmalloc?Intermediate
14. How can user space access GPIO or I2C on Linux?Basic

Hands-on challenges

Design rounds

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