Marvell Technology interview prep

DSAMedium

For a positive integer n, what does (n & (n - 1)) == 0 tell you?

1. n is even
2. n is odd
3. n has exactly two set bits
4. n is a power of two

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Software firmware intern on-campus interview, on GeeksforGeeks.

DSAMedium

How do you print every root-to-leaf path of a binary tree?

1. A level-order traversal printing each level
2. A DFS that adds each node to a current path, prints the path at a leaf, and removes the node again when it returns
3. Sort the nodes and print them
4. An inorder traversal printed in one line

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Software firmware intern on-campus interview, on GeeksforGeeks.

C and C++Medium

What does this print?

unsigned n = 44;
int count = 0;
while (n) {
    n &= n - 1;
    count++;
}
printf("%d", count);

1. 6
2. 4
3. 2
4. 3

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

C and C++Medium

What does this print?

int a[] = {5, 10, 15, 20};
int *p = a + 1;
printf("%d %d %d", *p + 1, *(p + 1), p[2]);

1. 11 15 20
2. 15 15 20
3. 6 15 20
4. 11 10 15

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

Computer networksMedium

What is the TTL field in an IP packet for?

1. Each router lowers it by one and drops the packet at zero, so packets cannot loop forever
2. It sets how long a website may cache the page
3. It is the packet's timestamp
4. It sets the TCP retransmission timeout

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

Computer networksMedium

How does an Ethernet switch learn which of its ports leads to which device?

1. It reads the source MAC address of each frame that comes in and records it against that port; a frame for an address it has not learnt yet is flooded out of every other port
2. It asks the DHCP server
3. It reads the IP address in each packet
4. An administrator types in every address

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

Computer networksHard

A 4,000-byte IPv4 datagram (a 20-byte header with no options) must cross a link whose MTU is 1,500 bytes. How many fragments are sent, and what is the fragment offset field of the last one?

1. 3 fragments; last offset 2,960
2. 2 fragments; last offset 185
3. 3 fragments; last offset 370
4. 4 fragments; last offset 555

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

Computer networksMedium

How does traceroute find the routers along the path to a host?

1. It asks each router for its routing table
2. It looks each router up in DNS
3. It sends probes with TTL 1, 2, 3 and so on; the router where a probe's TTL runs out drops it and sends back an ICMP Time Exceeded message, which reveals that router's address
4. It reads the MAC address of every hop

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

Computer networksEasy

How does a MAC address differ from an IP address?

1. A MAC address identifies a network interface on the local link (48 bits, set by the maker); an IP address identifies a host across networks and changes as the host moves between networks
2. They are two names for the same number
3. MAC addresses are used across the internet and IP addresses only inside a LAN
4. In IPv4, IP addresses are longer than MAC addresses

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.

Computer networksMedium

On a shared, half-duplex Ethernet segment, what does a station do when it detects a collision while sending?

1. It keeps sending and leaves the receiver to fix it
2. It stops, sends a jam signal, waits a random backoff time that grows with each collision, and tries again
3. It switches to another frequency
4. It asks the switch for permission to send

This topic is named in a candidate’s interview report: Intern on-campus interview, 2024, on GeeksforGeeks.