Synopsys — ASIC Digital Design Engineer

Name: Saurav Gupta

Q1. Which company have you been placed in and what’s the job description?

>> I have been placed in Synopsys. It’s based in Bengaluru, and I have been offered the role of ASIC Digital Design engineer.

Q2. Tell us something about your college life and experiences. Were you a part of any club or society throughout your college life and how did they help you?

>> It has been great excluding those one and a half years of online college life. I was a part of Team Aveon and was a part of EEESoc since 2020. Currently I’m the Vice President of Team Aveon. Being a part of this team has taught me a lot of things including hard work, discipline and it also helped me in interacting with my seniors.

Q3. What message would you give to the first and second-year undergraduates on effectively using their time and maintaining their academic as well as social life?

>> First of all, it’s really important for you to explore all your interests and to interact well with your seniors because they would be the one who would not only guide you academically, but you will learn a lot of things that would help you somewhere in your life. Also, college life is something you only get only once so ensure that you enjoy as much as you can and be sincere at required times.

Q4. How did you discover that “this particular sector” is suitable for me or I have interest in this? How did you carry forward in this?

>> I started coding like everyone else did in my first year but gradually I realised coding is something that doesn’t fascinate me as much. By the time first year passed, my inclination started shifting towards electronics when subjects like DSD, M&M, COA were introduced. And as the time passed, I realised electronics is something where my interest lies.

Q5. Many of the students have interest in both core and software, what would you suggest them?

>> In the beginning, when subjects of core and software are introduced, both seem interesting because you have just touched the surface and when you dig deep into the subjects only then you decide where your interest lies. So, it’s really important for you to explore properly.

Q6. What is your advice to the juniors who want to get placed in the field you’ve chosen?

>> First of all, MATLAB is the most important and most extensively used software for EEE undergraduates. When it comes to preparation for core electronics companies like Synopsys or NXP, semester syllabus is not sufficient. The topics which are really important from the placement point of view are as follows: Analog and Digital Electronics, CMOS, VHDL, VLSI, COA, FIFO, Static Timing Analysis, M&M. Apart from these, you must solve the previous year GATE questions on analog and digital electronics.

Q7. What was the selection procedure of your company? Can you repeat some of the important questions from each round of your interview?

>> There were 2 rounds including the HR round and the technical interview.

1st round was a written test which had 10 aptitude questions of medium difficulty, 40 questions were from digital electronics, 10 questions from analog electronics and approximately 10 questions were mixed from oops concepts, microprocessor, COA, etc.

2nd round was a technical interview in which both technical and HR related questions were asked, and some puzzles were also asked. All technical questions were at par with gate level questions.

Technical questions were mainly from digital electronics, circuit designing, and a lot of questions from static timing analysis were also asked. Some questions from Verilog were also asked.

Q8. What are the projects you have done in 4 years and how did they help in your placement and internship?

>> I have done 2–3 major projects during my college that includes “Speed control of DC motor using Arduino” and “Modelling the control strategy of BLDC motor in MATLAB”. Both these projects were a part of SPP and SMP which were conducted by EEESoc itself. In my interview too, the major highlight of my resume was the “EV” that we built in Team Aveon.

Q9. What are your future plans? Would you like to go for higher studies?

>> As of now, I would like to gain some experience in the industry and further ahead if this job seems monotonous, I could go for further studies.

Q10. How much clubs and extracurricular activities matter in general as well as in context to placements?

>> Clubs and societies are an integral part of your development during your college life because not only you learn new skills, but you also improve your communication skills, and it boosts your confidence which is really important for the interviews. It would also help you answer the HR round situational questions as you might have experienced those scenarios earlier in the club.

Q11. If an aspiring student couldn’t secure an on-campus internship, what recommendation do you have for that person both academically (off campus/ research internship) and mentally?

>>Don’t be disheartened, it’s alright if you didn’t grab an on-campus internship, you can utilise that time effectively and you can do some projects which would boost your resume. Otherwise, you can always apply for off campus internships, or you can do some research internship which would further enhance your technical knowledge.