Applied to Intel out of my undergrad CS program in late 2025. Went through the full new grad SWE process and got an offer for a role in their client computing group. Sharing everything I know because the prep advice online for Intel specifically is either from 2019 or super vague.
The process: Resume screen, then a 45-min technical phone screen, then a half-day virtual onsite (3-4 rounds). Total elapsed time was about seven weeks, which felt long but wasn't the longest I experienced during my search.
Phone screen: One coding problem, medium Leetcode difficulty. Dynamic programming adjacent but not pure DP. The interviewer was patient and asked clarifying questions along with me. Big tip: think out loud, because they're partly assessing how you communicate under pressure, not just whether you get the answer.
Onsite coding rounds (2 of them): I got one array/string problem and one graph traversal problem. Neither was hard, but both had follow-ups: what if the input is a stream? What's your memory tradeoff? Intel seems less obsessed with blind-hard problems than some of the other big hardware companies I talked to. Clean readable code and clear communication mattered more than brute optimization.
Systems/design round (lite version for new grads): They don't do a full system design with new grads, but they do ask a scaled-down version: design a cache, or explain how you'd design a rate limiter. Know the basics: LRU, hash maps, tradeoffs between consistency and availability. Don't need distributed systems depth at new grad level.
Behavioral round: STAR format. They asked about a time I worked on a team project that went sideways, and a time I had to learn something quickly. Standard but not throwaway. Prepare two or three solid stories.
Prep resources that actually helped me: Neetcode 150 (got through about 80 of them), one week of systems intro videos (Gaurav Sen on YouTube), and I did a few mock behavioral sessions to stop rambling.
Comp for my offer (Portland area): base around $115k, 15% annual bonus target, RSUs vesting over 4 years. For cost of living in Portland that's solid. Not FAANG money but not nothing.
Happiest to answer any specific questions. Intel felt like a real place to grow as a new grad compared to some of the contract-heavy setups I also interviewed at.