VLSI Backend Adventure Part I: Physical Design Interview Playbook

By Feroz Ahmed Choudhary

The VLSI Physical Design Interview Handbook: 800+ Questions and Answers Across the RTL-to-GDSII Flow

Cracking a physical design interview is about understanding why silicon behaves the way it does, and tracing problems to their root cause under pressure. This book prepares you for that, whether you are a fresher or a senior candidate.

Spanning synthesis, logic equivalence, DFT, floorplanning, power planning, placement, CTS, routing, and post-route to tapeout, it blends clear explanations with over 800 real interview questions from advanced FinFET nodes.

What's inside:

Full flow coverage from an engineer's perspective

800+ questions with detailed, reasoned answers

Dedicated chapters on synthesis, Formality-based LEC, DFT (PD view), floorplanning, power planning (IR/EM), placement, CTS, routing, and post-route

Side-by-side ICC2 vs Innovus command reference

A bonus round of flow-wide Q&A

Who it is for:

Freshers and M.Tech students gain fundamentals and confidence. Experienced engineers get depth, edge cases, and advanced topics on floorplanning, power integrity, CTS, routing, and tough senior-level problems. If switching domains or moving up, it meets you where you are.

Written by engineers who have taken RTL-to-GDSII designs to production on AI and HPC silicon, this handbook delivers the practical understanding that both interviews and real work demand.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H8ZH17QX
• ISBN13: 9798905847752
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Length: 430 Pages
• Weight: 3.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.5" x 11.0"