I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Qualcomm (San Diego, CA) in Sep 2016
Interview
I met the phone screener in person for coffee rather than on the phone, he approved and said he'll bring me in for a full on-site interview. In about 2 weeks I went to San Diego for the position in either San Diego or Silicon Valley. Interviewed with 5 team members, mix of technical questions and get-to-know you and my relevant experience. Came away feeling positive, was notified in email the next day that an offer was being prepared for me. Made a small negotiation over the phone and accepted the offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
[described how bluetooth devices pair], what could you do to optimize power consumption in this process?
I applied online. I interviewed at Qualcomm (Markham, ON) in Feb 2026
Interview
4 rounds : Technical screening round after HR screening round, (if you can explain and show your project involved skills they need) onsite technical coding round, system design and director level round
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Asked to identify and solve bug in already implemented logic for hill and valley problem with test cases
5 rounds of technical interviews. Some related to coding and others mostly related to profile.
All the interviews ensured the candidate had strong fundamentals.
Subsequently, HR offered and gave enough time to accept the offer.
Started sending Resume and its screening. Contacted by a HR personal and scheduled phone interview. I had a phone interview with the hiring manager. Then I had another phone interview with several peoples, most of them were engineers and seems like same level, juniors, and seniors. On site interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
General ASIC design questions as well as past experience.
Staff Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Qualcomm with 3.4 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 86% positive. To compare, the company-average is 62.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Staff Engineer roles take an average of 28 days to get hired, when considering 28 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Qualcomm overall takes an average of 22 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Qualcomm as a Staff Engineer according to 28 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 25%
Phone interview: 24%
Skills test: 13%
Group panel interview: 11%
Background check: 9%
Personality test: 7%
Presentation: 5%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Drug test: 3%
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