HDLForge · Hardware design interview questions
Hardware Design Interview Questions
Hardware design interviews can range from short RTL coding exercises to architecture, verification and protocol reasoning. The questions below cover the areas most useful to practise before an interview.
RTL and Verilog
- Design a parameterized counter.
- Implement a synchronous FIFO.
- Design a priority encoder or arbiter.
- What makes RTL synthesizable?
- How do combinational and sequential blocks differ?
SystemVerilog
- What is the difference between
always_combandalways_ff? - Why use an interface and modport?
- What are packed and unpacked arrays?
- How would you write a clocked assertion?
Verification and UVM
- What is the role of a UVM driver?
- How does a monitor reconstruct transactions?
- How would a scoreboard determine expected behaviour?
- Why use a reference model?
Computer architecture
- What is a RAW pipeline hazard?
- When is forwarding sufficient and when is a stall required?
- How is a direct-mapped cache index calculated?
- What is the difference between latency and throughput?
Protocols and FPGA
- How would you design a UART transmitter?
- What happens during a ready/valid handshake?
- How would you debounce a button in an FPGA?
- How do you safely handle clock-domain crossings?
Practise the questions
HDLForge turns these topics into focused interactive exercises. Browse the hardware design problem set or read the hardware design interview guide.