How do you audit multicycle setup and hold intent?

Short Answer

A multicycle path is one that's functionally allowed more than one clock cycle to complete — but set_multicycle_path is not a tool for making slow logic pass; it only encodes a cycle relationship that has to be true by design. , a configuration register that only changes every N cycles)?

Technical Explanation

• Nail down the start/end clocks and the edge convention explicitly — a multicycle relationship defined against the wrong launch or capture edge silently mis-constrains the path in the opposite direction from what you intended.
• Setup and hold multicycle behavior must be derived together, not treated as one number applied twice — a setup-side multicycle almost always requires a deliberate, matching hold-edge adjustment, and blindly reusing a memorized multicycle pair across different paths is exactly how audits catch mismatched intent.

What To Check

• Warning sign: A setup multicycle is added without the corresponding intended hold treatment.
• Inspect: Compare one named object across the related reports; the same object should tell a consistent story.
• Correct: Derive both checks from the protocol, correct the SDC, and inspect full clock-expanded paths.

Healthy, Suspicious & Hard-stop Results

• Expected: Confirm the functional cycle relationship, start/end clocks, edge convention, and paired hold behaviour instead of applying a number mechanically.
• Stop before floorplanning when required logic or timing coverage is missing or unexplained.

What The Interviewer Is Testing

Be ready to explain why this matters before floorplanning.

Follow-up Question & Model Response

Model response: “I would save the report, inspect one affected object in the correct block and scenario, and make or request this correction. ”