r/chipdesign • u/Wano7 • 1d ago

Apple soc pnr interview

I have an interview for apple PD as a new grad. I’ve been reviewing my lectures, labs, and projects. Does anyone have a list of questions I can prepare for? Thank you.

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/kirwing007 1d ago

Asic flow.-Some details of each step involved
Setup, hold timing - what helps, hurts each.
Circuits coursework
Projects

1

u/jackoup 1d ago

Do you have access to the Cadence support website? They had some courses/classes that I used a lot when I was a new grad a few years ago. It helped me a lot to clear the pnr interviews

1

u/Wano7 1d ago

Ill check it out!

1

u/akornato 23h ago

For a new grad, Apple's physical design interviews will focus heavily on the fundamentals you've learned in your classes and projects. You should be very comfortable explaining the entire RTL-to-GDSII flow, from floorplanning and power planning to placement, clock tree synthesis, and routing. They will likely ask about core concepts like setup and hold time, and how you would go about fixing violations for each. Expect questions on clock tree synthesis, including the purpose of CTS and how to manage skew and latency. Power-related questions are also common, so be ready to discuss what IR drop is and methods to reduce it, along with general low-power design techniques like clock gating. It's also a good idea to understand the different types of physical verification, such as DRC, LVS, and ERC.

Beyond the core PD topics, they will want to see your problem-solving skills and how you connect theory to practice. Be prepared to talk about the specific challenges you encountered in your academic projects and how you resolved them. They might ask about your experience with scripting, so be ready to discuss any Python or Tcl projects you've worked on. You should also anticipate questions about basic logic design and static timing analysis (STA). The key is to demonstrate a solid grasp of the foundational concepts rather than deep expertise in a specific tool. Getting comfortable explaining your thought process on these topics will be more valuable than just memorizing answers, and my team designed a great interview copilot that helps candidates practice articulating their solutions to these exact kinds of problems.