RTOS & Real-Time
Real-time programming concepts, task scheduling, and RTOS fundamentals
4 topics
Critical for senior roles
RTOS & Real-Time
intermediate
RTOS fundamentals
Understand real-time operating systems: hard vs soft real-time, task states, RTOS vs bare-metal tradeoffs, memory model, and FreeRTOS vs Zephyr comparison.
rtos
real-time
freertos
zephyr
+3
Interview Weight: 5/10
RTOS & Real-Time
intermediate
RTOS Scheduling and Timing
Understand preemptive vs cooperative scheduling, context switching mechanics and cost, rate monotonic analysis, timing analysis, and tickless idle for power-efficient RTOS systems.
rtos
scheduling
context-switch
preemptive
+3
Interview Weight: 5/10
RTOS & Real-Time
intermediate
RTOS Synchronization Primitives
Compare mutex vs semaphore, message queues, event flags, and understand priority inversion and deadlock prevention in RTOS-based embedded systems.
rtos
mutex
semaphore
queue
+4
Interview Weight: 5/10
RTOS & Real-Time
intermediate
ISR-to-task patterns
Master the deferred processing pattern: how ISRs signal RTOS tasks using semaphores, queues, and task notifications, with FromISR API rules and double-buffering techniques.
rtos
isr
deferred-processing
bottom-half
+3
Interview Weight: 4/10