Interview process

1. 1

   Hiring manager round

   45–60 min · hiring manager

   Resume-led screen that also samples flow and behavioral signal

   What they ask

   • Walk through your resume, then a block or partition you owned (~70–80%)
   • Your specific role and responsibilities versus the team's
   • A quick STA or flow question (~10%)
   • One or two behavioral prompts — ownership, deadlines (~10%)
2. 2

   Implementation flow round

   45–60 min · onsite panel≈30% weight

   Floorplan to signoff

   What they ask

   • Floorplanning and power planning
   • Placement, CTS, and useful skew
   • Routing and congestion resolution
   • Physical-aware synthesis and ECOs
3. 3

   Timing / STA round

   45–60 min · onsite panel≈30% weight

   Static timing depth

   What they ask

   • Setup/hold, slack, and clock skew
   • SDC constraints and exceptions (false vs multicycle)
   • OCV/derating and PVT corners
   • Close a real setup or hold violation
4. 4

   Resume-based round

   45–60 min · onsite panel≈20% weight

   Deep dive on a block you closed

   What they ask

   • End-to-end walkthrough of a partition you signed off
   • PPA trade-offs and decisions you made
   • The hardest violation you root-caused
   • Tcl/scripting and flow automation you built
5. 5

   Behavioral round

   45 min · hiring manager / peer panel≈20% weight

   Signoff ownership and collaboration

   What they ask

   • A closure you drove under schedule pressure
   • Working with design, DV, and DFT
   • An ECO or crunch you handled
   • Thoughtful questions for the team

How to prepare

• Resume stories: rehearse a block you closed end to end and lead with your own role, not the team's.
• Flow: be able to draw RTL-to-GDSII and explain what can go wrong at each stage.
• STA: know setup/hold equations, slack, false vs multicycle paths, and OCV/derating cold.
• Closure: prepare a real war-story — a violation you root-caused and how you fixed it.
• Trade-offs: understand power planning, IR-drop, and congestion-versus-timing.

Practice these sub-domains

Drill leveled questions for each area of the Physical Design + STA loop.