Interview Preparation — Model Accuracy & AI Performance Senior Staff Engineer
Overview
This directory contains targeted interview preparation for the Qualcomm Senior Staff ML Engineer — Model Accuracy & AI Performance role. The material is structured around the actual question types you will encounter.
File Structure
| File | Content | Time |
|---|---|---|
01-concepts-cheatsheet.md | Top 40 Q&A — quantization, profiling, NPU, torch.compile, eval | 4 hours read |
02-framework-internals-coding.py | Live coding: autograd, dispatch, FX passes from scratch | 6 hours practice |
03-optimization-coding.py | Live coding: FlashAttention tiling, fused kernels, roofline | 6 hours practice |
04-systems-design-questions.md | 10 system design walkthroughs with full answers | 4 hours read |
05-research-engineering-questions.md | Paper-to-code challenges (FlashAttention, GPTQ, LoRA) | 8 hours practice |
06-behavioral-star-stories.md | STAR stories for each competency area | 2 hours prep |
4-Week Interview Sprint
Week 1: Framework Fundamentals
- Read
01-concepts-cheatsheet.md(all quantization, dispatch, FX sections) - Implement all exercises in
02-framework-internals-coding.py - Review Phase 01 HITCHHIKERS-GUIDE (autograd, dispatch stack)
- Goal: can explain PyTorch dispatch stack, write a custom autograd Function, and implement a basic FX pass on a whiteboard
Week 2: Hardware and Optimization
- Read
01-concepts-cheatsheet.md(NPU, profiling, roofline sections) - Implement exercises in
03-optimization-coding.py - Review Phase 06 and 07 HITCHHIKERS-GUIDEs
- Goal: can describe Snapdragon HTP architecture, work through a roofline analysis, identify GPU performance bugs
Week 3: Systems Design
- Work through all 10 scenarios in
04-systems-design-questions.md - Read
05-research-engineering-questions.md - Implement at least 2 paper-to-code exercises
- Goal: can confidently whiteboard an accuracy regression CI system and an NPU deployment pipeline
Week 4: Polish and Behavioral
- Read and internalize
06-behavioral-star-stories.md - Mock interview (use an LLM as interviewer with the questions from files 01, 04)
- Review capstone projects and prepare to discuss each as portfolio items
- Goal: 45-minute mock interview without notes, covering all technical areas
The Senior Staff Signal
Interviewers at the Senior Staff level are evaluating:
- Depth: do you know why, not just what?
- Breadth: can you connect quantization to hardware architecture to accuracy metrics?
- Leadership: have you influenced frameworks, teams, or technical direction?
- Execution: have you shipped things at scale?
Every answer should end with: "...and here is how I know this from my experience."