Qualcomm visited my university for a Tech Talk. I had been in contact with their HR department since last year, when they came for the previous tech talk. Since I was "coming back," I was grilled on "Why Qualcomm?" They asked many questions about my background and interests.

The main HR representative spent a while explaining how the opportunities in the lab I want to work in are very limited. This means it's a small lab that's very hard to get into.

That afternoon, I received an email from their interview coordinator setting up an interview for later that week. On Thursday morning, I met with an engineer from the division I was interested in, down in San Diego. We talked for a while about his work, about Qualcomm in general, and about my background and interests. Then, he moved on to the technical questions.

When I got home, I created an account on their website and applied for the positions that interested me. I then sent a follow-up email expressing my excitement about the lab, thanking the HR person for her time, and asking about next steps.

During the interview, the engineer asked me to write several simple algorithms: reverse a string, copy a string, and count the number of "on" bits in a binary number. He also asked about the running times of these algorithms and then inquired about my favorite data structures.

He wanted to know why certain types of trees were better than other trees, mostly high-level conceptual information, not implementation details.

What is your favorite data structure? Why would you use that data structure over another one, and when would it be an inefficient choice?

Write a method that copies a string, and one that reverses a string. What is the running time of this algorithm?

Write a method to count the 'on' bits in a binary number. What is the running time of this algorithm?