David,

Where is your company located?

Andre



Apologies if anyone thinks this shouldn't be in the [PIC]: category but
it
does include code and I need to gain the attention of the gurus on this
list.  You all know who you are ;-)

My company needs to be able to select a suitable candidate for
employment on
a short term contract.  The job is for an experienced MPASM programmer
on
16F87* or 16F62* series micros.  The basic application includes real
time
control of high voltage DC, AC phase control, A-D, I2C and serial port
communication, user interface, EEPROM etc.  The skill set basically
needs to
include a good understanding of the Microchip parts and most of the
onboard
peripherals.

In order to aid the selection process it has been decided to ask the
candidates to complete a questionaire containing around 20 multiple
choice
questions immediately before their interview. The whole questionaire
should
take less than 30 minutes to complete.  Can anyone help me out by
suggesting
a few relatively simple questions that would test the knowledge of a
suitable candidate.  The sort of questions I have in mind might be:

Question 1:

A 16F877 is to be used with a 20MHz crystal.  Which of the following
CONFIG
words would be the most appropriate?

a)      __FUSES
_CP_OFF&_WDT_ON&_RC_OSC&_PWRTE_ON&_LVP_OFF&_BODEN_ON&_MCLRE_ON
b)      __FUSES
_CP_OFF&_WDT_ON&_XT_OSC&_PWRTE_ON&_LVP_OFF&_BODEN_ON&_MCLRE_ON
c)      __FUSES
_CP_OFF&_WDT_ON&_HS_OSC&_PWRTE_ON&_LVP_OFF&_BODEN_ON&_MCLRE_ON
d)      Do not know

Question 2:

The following code extract from a 16F628 program does not work as
intended.

;PORTB Setup
;-----
        clrf    STATUS,RP0                      ;Set BANK 0
        movlw   B'11111111'
        movwf   PORTB                           ;Set PORTB output
latches to all 1's

        bsf     STATUS,RP0                      ;Set BANK 1

        movwf   TRISB                           ;Set PORT B to all
outputs

        clrf    STATUS,RP0                      ;Set BANK 0


What would be the result?

a) Sets all I/O pins of PORT B to output 1
b) Sets all I/O pins of PORT B to output 0
c) Sets all I/O pins of PORT B to input or tristate
c) The state of PORTB cannot be determined

Question 3:

A 16F877 has a 10MHz crystal.  What is the execution time for a single
cycle
instruction?

a) 100nS
b) 4uS
c) 250nS
d) 400nS
e) None of the above


The idea is not necessarily catch them out with trick questions but to
test
their basic knowledge of the parts and the sort of quirks or errors that
can
occur. It should also catch those whose CV is less than truthful and are
desperate for a job!  Most of us have to refer to the data sheets for
setting up or using the more obscure peripherals so the questions need
to be
kept fairly basic to be useful.

For obvious reasons please do not supply the answers with any of your
questions.  I will ask if I can't work them out for myself!

Many thanks

David

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