Samsung R&D and Qualcomm India Interviews: What Past Candidates Reported

For anyone with a Samsung R&D Institute (Bangalore) or Qualcomm India interview coming up, on-campus or off. If you're also holding a service-company drive, multiple placement drives covers how to split your time.

TL;DR: The most recent first-hand accounts I could open are older than most of this blog's India posts: Samsung's date from 2020 to 2022, Qualcomm's from 2019 to 2024. Both companies lean on C and C++ fundamentals in the live rounds. The first gate differs a lot by route. Samsung runs a timed coding test whose length and platform change between accounts. Qualcomm's is an MCQ test in the newest campus accounts, but not in all of them. Read your own invite before you trust any of this.

The other India posts here cover IT services, Big Four, GCCs and product startups. Samsung R&D and Qualcomm are a different kind of employer: hardware-adjacent, with C/C++ and systems topics showing up in the interview more than in a TCS or Infosys process. The evidence is thinner too. I could open candidate write-ups on GeeksforGeeks for both, but not a single 2025-26 Samsung account, and I found no usable pages for Texas Instruments, Intel, AMD or NVIDIA India, so they're not here.

Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B)

Four accounts, four different tests. That's the first thing to know.

• 2020 internship, on-campus: a proctored test on Co-cubes with 3 questions in 70 minutes, where only some test cases were visible.
• 2021 full-time, on-campus: a 1.5-hour contest with 2 problems, then two technical rounds covering C++ theory (dangling pointer, malloc versus new, void pointer, singleton) and easy DSA.
• 2022 on-campus: 3 coding questions in 70 minutes on what the author calls the AON portal. The technical interview was on MS Teams for about 45 minutes.
• 2022 off-campus, via eLitmus: a 3-hour test with one problem, called the Samsung SWC Advance test. The author calls it very strictly proctored: a virtual desktop with no internet, plus phone video monitoring. After that came one or two technical rounds (OOP, OS, DBMS, a puzzle) and HR.

So the platform changed (Co-cubes, AON, eLitmus-linked), and the shape changed too (3 short problems in 70 minutes versus one long problem in 3 hours). I can't tell you which one your drive uses. The on-campus versus off-campus route seems to matter more than the year.

What stays consistent across the live rounds is the C++ and systems flavour: pointers, memory allocation, OOP, OS and DBMS basics. A single puzzle shows up in the off-campus account.

On pay: I saw an aggregator average and a forum post for an SDE-1 PPO, but couldn't open either page, and the forum post looks like 2022. I'm leaving the number out. Get the breakdown in writing before you compare it with anything.

Qualcomm India

Qualcomm has the one 2024 account I could use, plus three older ones that show how much the route matters.

• 2024, Associate Engineer (ECE): a 90-minute online assessment in three 30-minute sections: aptitude, computer fundamentals, then C/pointers with digital electronics and communications. Marking was +1 and -0.25. Three technical interviews followed.
• 2022, on-campus hardware role: three sections of 20 questions at 30 minutes each. The author says about 1,500 people sat it and about 35 were shortlisted. Interviews were on MS Teams.
• 2022, off-campus software: no online test. Four virtual rounds over three days, including linked-list coding while sharing the screen.
• 2019, off-campus: a HackerRank test, then three technical rounds covering memory layout, paging, structure padding, ARM architecture and memcpy.

The conflict to be aware of: two campus accounts describe an MCQ-only test with no coding, one off-campus account describes HackerRank coding, and one skipped the test entirely. Hardware versus software roles and campus versus off-campus seem to drive it. I found no CTC figure for Qualcomm.

Side by Side

How to Prep for Each

Samsung: practise the timed format, not just the problems. If your drive uses the 70-minute, 3-question shape, getting two clean and attempting the third beats polishing one. If it's the long single-problem version, the work is staying calm for 3 hours without internet. Then revise C++ theory as questions you can answer out loud in a sentence or two: what's a dangling pointer, why prefer one allocation over another, how would you write a singleton.

For the coding test, OA Copilot is built for online assessments on HackerRank, CodeSignal, Codility and similar platforms. Samsung's test is described as strictly proctored in two accounts, and your invite and the terms shown before the test decide what's allowed on your drive, so read them first.

Qualcomm: if your role is hardware, the MCQ sections (digital electronics, communications, C output questions) are the filter, and negative marking of 0.25 means leaving a guess blank is a real decision. If it's software, expect to code on a shared screen. The technical rounds go deep on memory: stack versus heap, structure padding, paging. A mock interview where you explain pointer and memory answers aloud is closer to that than another round of DSA problems.

For both: several of the live rounds were on MS Teams, so check your camera, audio and screen sharing the day before.

If the product-company side of your list matters more, the product-based OA guide covers the platforms that turn up here too.

FAQ

What is the Samsung R&D Bangalore interview process for freshers?

A timed coding test, one or two technical interviews on C++, OOP, OS, DBMS and a puzzle, then HR. The test platform and length differ between campus and off-campus routes, and the accounts date from 2020 to 2022, so use your own invite as the source of truth.

What is the Samsung SWC Advance test?

One 2022 off-campus candidate, via eLitmus, described a 3-hour test with a single problem, on a virtual desktop with no internet and phone video monitoring. It's one account, not a published spec.

Does the Qualcomm online assessment have coding questions?

It depends on role and route. A 2024 Associate Engineer (ECE) account and a 2022 campus account describe MCQ sections only. A 2019 off-campus account describes a HackerRank test, and a 2022 off-campus software account had no online test.

How many technical rounds does Qualcomm India have?

The 2024 account lists three after the assessment. A 2022 off-campus software account describes four virtual rounds over three days. Expect three or more and confirm with your recruiter.

What is the Samsung R&D fresher salary?

I'm not quoting a figure, because the numbers I found came from pages I couldn't verify. Ask for the offer breakdown in writing.

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Author · Alex Chen. Career consultant and former tech recruiter. Spent 5 years on the hiring side before switching to help candidates instead. Writes about real interview dynamics, not textbook advice.