Texas Instruments C++ Interview Questions & Answers
Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About Texas Instruments hiring for C++ roles
Texas Instruments is an American semiconductor company that designs and manufactures analog chips and embedded processors used in industrial, automotive, personal electronics and communications products. Its Bengaluru centre, set up in 1985, was one of the first multinational R&D centres in India. It hires analog, digital, verification, embedded software and applications engineers.
For C++ roles, this Texas Instruments practice set focuses most on Performance, Debugging and Build Tools (7), Modern C++ (C++11 to C++23) (6), Pointers and Memory Management (5), Templates and Generic Programming (5). It has 6 easy, 20 medium, 4 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Company type
Hardware & semiconductors
Headquarters
Dallas, USA
Main India offices
Bengaluru
Texas Instruments C++ interview process
Online assessment (aptitude + electronics)
Technical interview 1
Technical interview 2
HR round
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
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01
A program that prints a million lines with std::endl is very slow. Why, and how do you fix it?
std::endl writes a newline and also flushes the stream buffer every time, forcing a system call per line. Replace it with the newline character so output is buffered and written in large chunks. For competitive programming or bulk output, also call std::ios::sync_with_stdio(false) and std::cin.tie(nullptr). Flush explicitly only when output must appear immediately, such as before a risky operation.
02
What is the difference between const and constexpr?
const means a value cannot be modified after initialisation, but it may still be computed at run time. constexpr means the variable or function can be evaluated at compile time when its inputs are constant. With constexpr int sq(int x) { return x * x; } you can write int arr[sq(4)];. Use constexpr for array sizes, template arguments and lookup tables, and consteval when evaluation must happen at compile time.
Any insertion that causes reallocation, when size exceeds capacity, invalidates all iterators, pointers and references. Insertion without reallocation invalidates those at or after the insertion point. erase invalidates iterators at and after the erased element. clear and resize to a larger size beyond capacity invalidate everything. Holding a pointer to an element and then calling push_back is a classic bug.
unique_ptr has sole ownership, cannot be copied, can only be moved, and costs almost nothing over a raw pointer. shared_ptr keeps a reference count in a control block and destroys the object when the last owner disappears. weak_ptr observes an object owned by shared_ptr without increasing the count; call lock() to get a shared_ptr if it still exists. weak_ptr breaks cycles and suits caches.
05
A C++ server crashes with a segmentation fault in production. How do you debug it?
Make sure core dumps are enabled with ulimit -c unlimited or systemd-coredump, and keep debug symbols for release builds. Load the core with gdb binary core, run bt to see the stack trace, then inspect frames and variables. If the stack looks corrupted, reproduce in staging with AddressSanitizer. I would also check logs around the crash time and recent deployments, then add a regression test with the fix.
06
What are type traits and how does if constexpr use them?
Type traits in <type_traits> answer questions about types at compile time, such as std::is_integral_v<T>, std::is_pointer_v<T> or std::is_same_v<T, U>, and transform types, such as std::remove_reference_t. if constexpr picks a branch at compile time and discards the other, so code like if constexpr (std::is_integral_v<T>) can call integer-only operations safely inside a generic function.
07
List the gdb commands you would use to debug a crash.
g++ -g -O0 main.cpp -o app # build with debug symbols
gdb ./app # or: gdb ./app core
(gdb) run arg1 arg2 # start the program
(gdb) bt # backtrace after the crash
(gdb) frame 2 # select a stack frame
(gdb) info locals # show local variables
(gdb) print ptr->size # inspect an expression
(gdb) break order.cpp:42 # set a breakpoint
(gdb) watch total # stop when a variable changes
(gdb) next / step / continue # step over, step into, resume
NULL is usually defined as 0 or 0L, an integer, so overloaded functions such as f(int) and f(char*) pick the int version for f(NULL), which surprises readers. nullptr has its own type, std::nullptr_t, that converts only to pointer types, so f(nullptr) calls the pointer overload. It also works correctly in templates where the type is deduced. Modern code should always use nullptr.
09
Write a micro-benchmark with Google Benchmark comparing two approaches.
CMake is a cross-platform build system generator. You describe targets, source files, include paths and dependencies in CMakeLists.txt, and CMake generates Makefiles, Ninja files or Visual Studio projects. Modern CMake is target based, using target_link_libraries and target_include_directories so settings flow to dependents. It integrates with package managers such as vcpkg and Conan and with CTest for running tests.
A lambda is an unnamed function object written inline, for example [](int a, int b) { return a < b; }. The capture list decides what outside variables it can use: [x] copies x, [&x] references x, [=] copies everything used, [&] references everything used, and [this] captures the object pointer. C++14 allows init captures such as [p = std::move(ptr)]. Reference captures dangle if the lambda outlives the variables.
13
A service occasionally freezes and thread dumps show two threads each waiting on a mutex held by the other. How do you fix it?
This is a lock-order deadlock. I would find the two code paths, for example transfer locking account A then B while another locks B then A. The fix is to lock both together with std::scoped_lock(a.m, b.m), or to define a global ordering such as by account ID and always lock lower first. I would also shrink critical sections and add a stress test, and consider TSan or lock hierarchy checks.
14
What is the difference between a shallow copy and a deep copy?
A shallow copy copies pointer members, so two objects share one heap buffer; destroying one leaves the other dangling and causes a double free. A deep copy allocates new memory and copies the contents. The compiler-generated copy constructor copies member by member, so a class owning a raw pointer needs a custom copy constructor and copy assignment, or better, should hold a std::vector or unique_ptr instead.
15
An asynchronous callback crashes intermittently. It is a lambda that captures local variables by reference. Explain the problem and fix.
The lambda runs later on another thread or event loop, after the function that created it has returned, so the captured references point to destroyed stack variables. Fix it by capturing by value, moving owned data into the lambda with init captures, or capturing a shared_ptr or weak_ptr for objects whose lifetime must be extended or checked. Avoid default [&] for any callback that can outlive the scope.
16
Is it expensive to return a large std::vector from a function by value?
Usually no. Return value optimisation constructs the result directly in the caller's storage, and since C++17 this copy elision is guaranteed when returning a prvalue. For a named local, compilers apply named RVO, and if they cannot, the vector is moved, which only copies three pointers. So return by value is clean and fast. Do not write return std::move(local); because it can block elision.
17
What does the static keyword mean in different contexts?
Inside a function, a static local variable is initialised once and keeps its value between calls. At namespace scope, static gives internal linkage, so the name is visible only in that translation unit. Inside a class, a static data member belongs to the class rather than each object, and a static member function has no this pointer. Since C++17 inline static members can be defined directly in the header.
Resource Acquisition Is Initialization ties a resource's lifetime to an object's lifetime. The constructor acquires the resource, such as memory, a file, a socket or a mutex, and the destructor releases it. Because destructors run automatically when a scope ends, even when an exception is thrown, resources are never leaked. std::unique_ptr, std::lock_guard and std::fstream are standard RAII types.
GoogleTest with GoogleMock is the most widely used; it provides TEST and TEST_F macros, assertions such as EXPECT_EQ and ASSERT_TRUE, fixtures and mocking. Catch2 and doctest are lightweight, header-friendly alternatives with natural syntax. Tests are usually registered with CTest in CMake and run in CI on every merge. Good tests are fast, independent and cover edge cases like empty input and overflow.
20
Write a function that allocates a 2D matrix safely without raw new and delete.
It is a misunderstanding. A moved-from standard library object is in a valid but unspecified state; for std::string it is often empty, but you cannot rely on that. The safe operations are destroying it or assigning a new value. Reading it is not undefined behaviour, but the content is meaningless. Clang-tidy's bugprone-use-after-move check catches this pattern in code review.
23
Write a move constructor and move assignment operator for a class that owns a buffer.
It breaks the single responsibility principle. First I add characterisation tests around current behaviour. Then I extract cohesive pieces into separate classes such as Parser, Validator and Repository, injected through interfaces so they can be mocked. I move step by step, keeping the old public API as a facade, and merge small refactors frequently instead of one big rewrite, so risk stays low and reviews stay easy.
26
Implement a generic Stack class template backed by std::vector.
I would measure with Clang -ftime-trace or build tooling to find the slowest files and headers. Then reduce header dependencies using forward declarations and the pimpl idiom, use Ninja for parallel builds, enable ccache or sccache, add precompiled headers for stable heavy headers, and split huge translation units. Unity builds and distributed compilation also help, and CI can cache build outputs.
The same block was freed twice or heap metadata was overwritten. Typical causes are a class with a raw owning pointer and the default copy constructor, deleting the same pointer in two places, mixing delete and delete[], or a buffer overflow writing past an allocation. AddressSanitizer shows the first invalid free and where the memory was allocated. The lasting fix is clear ownership with smart pointers or containers.
30
Tell me about a time you wrote generic, reusable code that saved effort for your team.
Situation: three services each had their own copy of retry logic for network calls. Task: remove duplication without slowing them down. Action: I wrote a small header-only template, retry with a callable and a policy for attempts and backoff, added unit tests and documented examples. Result: all three services adopted it, around 600 lines of duplicate code were deleted and a bug fix now happens in one place.
Tips to crack the Texas Instruments C++ interview
Revise analog electronics, op-amps, circuit analysis and semiconductor device basics, which are core topics for many TI roles.
For digital and embedded roles, revise digital design, microcontrollers and C programming with practical examples from lab work.
Be ready to solve circuit problems on paper and explain each step clearly, as interviewers often focus on fundamentals.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; Texas Instruments interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the Texas Instruments C++ interview?
Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online assessment (aptitude + electronics); Technical interview 1; Technical interview 2; HR round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the Texas Instruments C++ interview?
This practice set leans on Performance, Debugging and Build Tools (7), Modern C++ (C++11 to C++23) (6), Pointers and Memory Management (5), Templates and Generic Programming (5). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most Texas Instruments interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at Texas Instruments?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in hardware & semiconductors interviews like Texas Instruments's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does Texas Instruments hire C++ professionals in India?
Texas Instruments has large teams in Bengaluru. Openings and locations change often, so check the Texas Instruments careers page and filter by city and experience.