Cadence Design System Interview Experience for C++ (1+ YOE)

Hi, I was recently(June’23) interviewed for the Software Developer position for Cadence Design Systems (Location: Noida). Have a year of experience. Following were interview rounds/questions-

Round 1- Telephonic Round with HR. Focus was on:-

1. Reason for Change?
2. Previous Compensation || Expected Compensation.
3. Experience in C++.

Round 2- Coding Round || Taken by Principal Engineer having 7+ YOE.

1. Kth Largest Element in a BST.
2. Modified InOrder Traversal followed with
3. Level Order Traversal – (Start from Bottom)
4. Find a triplet with the given sum.
5. Questions on C++ Concepts- Can the constructor be private followed by questions on Singelton Class
6. Questions on Inheritance, Polymorphism
7. Storage Classes in C/C++ etc.

It was expected to come up with solutions having efficient Time and Space Complexity with iterations.

Round 3- Puzzle Round || Taken by Technical Manager having 11+ YOE.

1. Camel and Banana Puzzle
2. Create an AND (&) operation using OR (|) and Inverse (~) Operator
3. 10 Identical Bottles of Pills
4. Detect Loop in LL? How does Floyd’s algorithm work? Had to explain the proof using diagrams.
5. Mislabelled Jars
6. Questions on C++ Pointer Concepts.
7. Questions on Reference, Pointer Increment, etc.

This round was tougher than expected. If you are going for an interview with cadence, I will strongly suggest you go through all the puzzles listed in GFG. It may or not be asked but yes, if you haven’t practiced puzzles before, it will be tough to crack logic during the interview.

Round 4- Tech + Fitment Round || Taken by Sr. Director- India Head having 21+ YOE.

1. Questions were to reverse the word in the incoming stream ensuring special characters were handled accordingly. You can’t use Stack or other libraries. Implement custom functions on your own. This question alone took 10-15 min, various special cases were introduced later.
2. Check given coordinate lies within the rectangle.
3. Optimise the equation with compiler point of view where x is variable and abcdef are constatnts y=ax5 + bx4 + cx3 + dx2 + ex + f

Now comes the fitment questions

1. Why do you want to switch?
2. How was your feedback on the previous company?
3. Did any conflict happen during the project? How did you handle conflict?
4. What sort of constructive feedback you used to get?
5. Explain all the projects you did in the company.
6. How was your bonding with co-workers?
7. Describe your strengths and weaknesses.
8. Expected compensation, Previous Compensation?
9. Any other offers? I had another offer also, so the discussion was quite interesting here.
10. Why do you want to join cadence over that?
11. How do you ensure your motivation??

This round was tiring. I think I was asked all the typical fitment questions that exist.

Suggestions:-

1. Go through all the interview questions article on GFG.
2. Brush Up C++ Concepts.
3. Must Practise GFG Puzzles
4. Prepare for typical fitment questions

Final Outcome:

My expected compensation did not align with the offer provided.