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It took them about 4-6 weeks to get back to me with a phone screening. I spoke with one of the directors of engineering. He was very nice, sincere, and technically apt. Questions were pretty basic about IP3, Smith charts, VSWR, and how you would make measurements in a lab.
The on-site interview consists of 5 technical interviews, about an hour each. Almost every interview asked to draw an RF front-end architecture and to draw/explain how a phase-locked loop works. Expect questions about constellations, eye diagrams, RF design challenges, IP3, P1dB, Smith charts, amplifier class biasing, analog RF filters (be prepared to draw elliptic, Chebyshev, Butterworth, etc.), noise figure, etc. There were some esoteric terms with which I was unfamiliar, such as gamma (optimum matching coefficient) and beta for FM (modulation index for FM). You really need to be able to answer questions on all of these topics.
I'd say I aced 4 of the 5 interviews and did okay on one, and I wasn't offered a job, so make sure you know everything I just described inside and out.
There are no behavioral or situational questions. They seem to only care about what you know, not whether you'll be easy to work with. This is a bit disconcerting for people such as myself who have worked on a design team before and know the challenges of working with stubborn engineers.
Be prepared to talk about stochastic probability density functions as they relate to signal theory.
The following metrics were computed from 4 interview experiences for the Qualcomm RF Hardware Engineer role in San Diego, California.
Qualcomm's interview process for their RF Hardware Engineer roles in San Diego, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Qualcomm's RF Hardware Engineer interview process in San Diego, California.