Interview process was thorough and technical. A lot of questions were asked which directly related to my position and the projects that I was given later on. Overall, the whole process was smooth and satisfying.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Finite State Machine related questions, other Hardware related questions
I applied through university. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Hughes Network Systems (Germantown, MD)
Interview
I applied through a campus event. The process was as follows:
1) On-campus interview:
Basic questions related to details on resume, what do you want to do, what are your interests, do you have any questions for us etc. Total interview time: 40 min.
2) On-site interview:
The on-site interview was a month after the first interview. It was a two-day event - interviews on the second day, and a welcome reception event on the first day. This event is where you get a chance to interact with other candidates and Hughes employees, and a chance to discuss and learn about the company, available roles, growth opportunities etc. Event duration: ~2hrs.
The actual interviews took place on the next day. There were four one-on-one interviews with four different interviewers, each lasting roughly 45 min with no scheduled breaks in between. We reached the company campus in the morning, and attended a quick briefing session over breakfast. Next, our names were called out and we were paired up with our first interviewers who walked us to the interview room. Since the campus has a lot of identical buildings and it is easy to get lost given the tension, it is advisable to note the extensions of the HR team and their names for emergencies.
Details of the individual interviews are as follows:
a) First interview: Questions about current research, projects on resume, digital signal processing, digital modulation techniques, simple C programs.
b) Second interview: Questions related to resume, why I quit my previous job, fabrication practices and material selection guidelines followed for projects on resume.
c) Third interview: Design questions from a certain project on resume, interviewer was interested in a lot of design parameters and their values.
d) Fourth interview: Questions from RF & microwave engineering, antenna measurements, Smith chart and impedance matching, questions related to current research.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1) Given a filter transfer function, would the filter coefficients be real or imaginary.
2) Explain the process of BPSK and QPSK modulation, their constellation diagrams and how incoming bits are mapped to waveforms.
3) What would happen if there was a frequency error in these modulation schemes, and the effect that would have on the constellation diagram.
[The frequency errors would cause the constellation diagram to rotate around the origin point with a angular rate determined by the frequency shift]
4) Since execution time on a processor is valuable, what is the best way to compute the number of 1s in the binary representation of a given number? Write a pseudo code for the same.
[The logic he was expecting is monitor the LSB for 1 or a 0, right shift the number by 1, check the LSB and so on.]
5) If a device has the following response on a Smith Chart, how would you match it?
6) What are the different antenna measurement ranges? How does a compact antenna range work?
7) Question related to two-port network theory and properties of S-matrix, specifically unitary properties.
I applied through university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Hughes Network Systems (College Park, MD) in Jun 2010
Interview
Initilally recruited from college. Had short interview with the recruiting engineer on campus. The interview was technical but fair. Followed by on site interview where all other candidates are invited. Sat in a room and three engineers of different levels came to interview me. The process took half a day. About half of the questions were technical