Applied online and heard back relatively quickly.

Had lunch with the recruiter and hiring manager. They decided to move forward with an interview loop.

Brushed up on embedded questions, including:

• Bit manipulation
• String/array management
• Kernel optimization
• Multithreading
• Interrupt contexts

And just in case, also brushed up on irrelevant high-level CS BS, such as graphs, binary trees, heaps, etc.

Unfortunately, they only asked game development-related software questions (geometry-heavy, simple math questions implemented efficiently in code) and then proceeded to assume that kernel software engineers should know how to design hardware at a high level of competency.

I explained that I could design simple hardware like a prototype gamepad or customize a reference design, but it takes years of relevant experience to make something ready for mass production.

They ended the interview loop early since I didn't do well on the software questions and did not offer me a chance to redeem myself with another question.

I went home with a bad taste in my mouth both about their level of professionalism and their hardware design prospects.

They have a cavalier attitude about hardware mass production and driver development, which is going to serve them very poorly as they attempt to ramp up. Most of the real work in designing a hardware product comes after the prototype phase, as Kickstarter has publicly demonstrated.

Find shortest distance between axis-aligned rectangles.

How would you improve the hardware design of a dismantled example gamepad?