I applied through college or university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA) in Jul 2009
Interview
First was a phone screen for 15 min. It could have been longer for me, but I told my interviewer that I had to rush to a class after that. I was asked questions on my resume. I got an onsite call within 5 days.
The onsite had 4 rounds of interviews lasting 1hr each. Each interviewer was either a engineering manager or a member of technical staff. I found all the interviewers intelligent and smart. Since C++ is heavily used here, prepare that part well.
I applied online. I interviewed at Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA) in Jun 2017
Interview
I was contacted by the hiring manager for a first tech round. It was basic string and array problems. At the end of the phone call I was told they would like to fly me for an onsite . During my onsite I had 4 interviews with developers from different teams. All of them were well experienced and had a sound knowldege on c/c++. I was mostly tested on c and c++. I was tested on algo problems and writing test cases. It was a good experience altogether
Communication is not necessary for people who have their technical knowledge. Because they have an option to place technical companies. So don't worry you can place that type of companies