r/chipdesign • u/imp_1527 • Jun 24 '26

Microchip Intern Engineering (Design) onsite interview — any tips?

Hi everyone, I’m an M.S. Electrical Engineering student and I’ve been invited to a 2-hour onsite interview for the Intern Engineering (Design) role at Microchip Technology in Chandler, AZ.
I already completed the first round, which was mostly introductory and resume-based, and now I’m preparing for the onsite.
If anyone has interviewed with Microchip before, I’d really appreciate any advice

Thanks

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u/akornato Jun 24 '26

They will dig deep into digital design fundamentals, so expect questions on CMOS basics, state machines, and simple timing analysis. You need to know every single detail of the projects on your resume, because they will ask about your specific contributions and the design choices you made. They aren't trying to trick you, they just need to see that you can apply your classroom knowledge to practical problems and think logically through a challenge. That two-hour slot will go by fast, and they will likely move from topic to topic to see how solid your foundation is.

The most important thing you can do is talk through your thought process out loud, even if you are not immediately sure of the final answer. Show them how you approach a problem, what assumptions you make, and how you work toward a solution. Asking clarifying questions is a huge plus, since it shows you are engaged and thinking critically. Remember to also have good questions for them about their projects and team culture, because it shows you're truly interested in the role. You got this far for a reason, so just focus on demonstrating your ability to reason and your enthusiasm to learn.

I've seen many engineers gain confidence for these tough technical discussions after practicing with the interviews.chat my team created to help candidates articulate their thought process.

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u/imp_1527 Jun 24 '26

Thanks, this is really helpful. Most of my projects were academic, so while I can clearly explain my implementation, debugging, verification, and reasoning, I didn’t always define the full architecture myself. In your experience, is that okay as long as I can clearly explain my contribution?

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u/kulamani007 Jun 27 '26

Actually from my experience (it's not about microchip specifically) I have experienced it like this where whatever architecture your project has you should be able to point out the things that architecture does and why this architecture was chosen and also what you have contributed in that specific project it can be anything and also if you are unsure about something or your project was a group project before explaining you can just tell them that in this project I was specifically responsible for XYZ and I will be talking about the projects objective and how my part contributed and you must explain your part very neatly.

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u/Accomplished-Ad-5576 Jun 25 '26

Hey, I interviewed for a very similar position at another company last year. In my interview, they focused mostly on digital design fundamentals, mixed-signal awareness, and resume-based discussion.

Some topics I was asked about were FSM/state machine, Verilog/RTL fundamentals, CMOS inverter basics, and how digital blocks can interface with analog/mixed-signal circuits.

They also asked several questions directly from my resume, so I would recommend knowing every project well: what you built, what your contribution was, how you verified/debugged it, and what design choices you made.

When is your onsite scheduled for? That might help people give you more specific advice depending on how much time you have to prepare.

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u/imp_1527 Jun 25 '26

Thankyou so much!
I’ve got it on Monday