Introduction to Embedded System Interview Questions and Answers

An embedded system is actually a combination of hardware and software, considering any computer system. It mainly helps to configure the system as programmable or fixing some better feature that improving its capability. It also helps design some of the specific function(s) considering any computer system that is larger than usual. There is a lot of electronics that are mainly popular due to identifying the proper location and helping people find out to reach a destination with that location identifier. Embedded system main helps identify a possible location in Industrial varieties machines, automobiles, medical equipment, cameras, airplanes, toys, house equipment, etc.

Now, if you are looking for a job related to Embedded Systems, you need to prepare for the 2023 Embedded System Interview Questions. Every interview is indeed different as per the different job profiles. Here, we have prepared the important Embedded System Interview Questions and Answers, which will help you succeed in your interview.

In this 2023 Embedded System Interview Questions article, we shall present the 10 most important and frequently asked Embedded System Interview questions. These questions are divided into two parts are as follows:

Part 1 – Embedded System Interview Questions (Basic)

This first part covers basic Interview Questions and Answers.

Q1. Explain about pass by value and pass by reference in detail. If we want to pass one structure as the argument, then how we can do this?

Answer:
Suppose a programmer needs to pass one value to one function to another. There has one very common approach to passing this value through a parameter of that specific function. We can now pass one of the copies of that require value as a variable or an object reference or memory reference where that variable value has been stored. The first way is considering as pass by value, and 2^nd one passes by reference. In the case of pass-by-value, changes made in passing the parameter within that function will not be reflected in the caller function, whereas in the case of pass-by-reference, any changes reflected the calling function.

Q2. Explain details difference between when to use the inline and macro function?

Answer:
Macro is just assuming one of the symbolic representations anytime for programming, but it never helps on data type differentiation which we normally did. Whereas in the case of inline functions, we can easily able to define different data types as well.

Q3. When did the volatile keyword need to use? Give a detailed explanation?

Answer:
Suppose any program is willing to use one specific parameter that belongs to other mapped devices; in such cases, a volatile keyword can be used, representing that specific variable with that conditional point of memory where that variable is mapped with another device. The main utility of the same is that the declared variable can be changed easily from outside of that specific program. Normally, when we compile any program, the compiler default performs some additional optimization for that specific program. But in the case of volatile parameters compiler could not perform any kind of additional optimization to that specific code.

Q4. Explain a soft and hard real-time system in detail?

Answer:
This is the basic Embedded System Interview Question asked in an interview. In the case of the embedded system, hard real-time are always very strict in case of a timeline, never considered late in delivery or response, not concentrating on the deliverable products just thinking about late time and considering the same failure. But for the case of soft real-time, it also very strict on a timeline but still a little soft way. It mainly considering the quality of the product and the performance of the delivery. Some other points may be considered for little late delivery or missing timeline due to the better product.

Q5. Explain about semaphore in details? There have varieties of types of semaphore available in the market. Please explain them in details?

Answer:
Semaphore is basically maintaining storage of varieties abstract data to control access of various resources across all the running active threads or multiple processes.

We normally found two kinds of semaphores:

One is binary semaphore; it actually handling or accepting only the 0 and 1 value. It is mainly used when there was some possibility of contention for the case of a single resource entity.
The second one is counting semaphore, which uses some incremental values, but it should have a certain limit.

Part 2 – Embedded System Interview Questions (Advanced)

Let us now have a look at the advanced Interview Questions.

Q6. Explain the characteristics of the recursive function. Is it possible to make them inline? If yes, please explain how it is possible.

Answer:
The recursive function is one of the popular approaches for any kind of programming methodology. It actually calls by own or calls by itself. It refers to a specific function that calls to them any time before given the final result.

Yes, it can be possible to define the same as an inline function. And in the case of the inline function, as usual, memory space can be allocated by the compiler itself for the same when that function especially calls for the first time in the entire program execution.

Q7. Giving some explanation of default size needs to be maintained from the primitive types like Int, Char, and Float data types.

Answer:
Actually, the size of the char and int, not possible to define, as it always depends on the specific operating system or define firmware. It always depends on the number of address lines available in the address bar. But still, in average, int considering values in between 2-4 bytes, and char 1-2 bytes. The float normally took a little high value, that is, 4 bytes.

Let us move to the next Embedded System Interview Questions.

Q8. Explain about detailed characteristics of Malloc. One of the very popular malloc statements is Malloc(sizeOf(0)); what will be the possible result after executing the same.

Answer:
Malloc is a kind of popular function to allocate memory dynamically to different variables. Malloc is mainly used for getting memory pointer. The mentioned statement always returning one valid integer value, which pointing a memory pointer of passing integer value 0.

Q9. Explain about forwarding Reference available in C programming language.

Answer:
This is the most asked Embedded System Interview Questions in an interview. Forward reference in C indicates that when we plan to address or point to one smaller data type with a specific pointer of one bigger data type in the C programming language.

Q10. If we create one possible object of an inherited class, then what will be the exact order of calling that needs to be maintained in the case of constructors and destructors?

Answer:
An inherited class is being very much commonly used in recent object-oriented programming concepts. Here constructors and destructors both are calling on some specific timing. Here, the constructor is mainly calling in the base class’s case first order, whereas the destructor normally calls the child class first order. This is why if we used two levels of inheritance like A (base class) >> B (child 1) >> C (Child 2), then the constructor of A will always be calling first, followed by B and C.

Quiz Result
Total Questions	Correct Answers	Wrong Answers	Percentage