General
RTOS
Also written as Real-Time Operating System, FreeRTOS, Zephyr RTOS
A small operating system for devices that must respond within a guaranteed time, such as airbag controllers, industrial robots and medical devices. Being late counts as a failure, not just a slowdown.
Think of it like
A kitchen where every order has a hard deadline: a dish that arrives late gets thrown away, however good it is.
Junior or senior?
Specialist and hard to fake.
Senior sounds like
Can talk about task priorities, timing deadlines and a timing bug they hunted down.
Ask them
“What was a timing deadline your system had to meet, and how did you prove it met it?”