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2 trains are travelling towards each other on the same First Continental Railroad track. The train leaving Sioux City, Iowa is going 45 mph and the train leaving Portland, Oregon is going 48 mph, neither train has working brakes. A bald eagle is flying back-and-forth between the trains at 35 mph. How far does the eagle fly before the trains collide?
Quoted from DCFAN:How far apart are they ? Lol
You are taking the interview questionnaire in an office by yourself with no internet access or phone and no one to ask questions to.
Quoted from EJS:In my second interview for my current job I was asked only one question. What’s the differences between .223 and 5.56?
That question has nothing to do with the position I applied for / have now
5.337
Quoted from KozMckPinball:2 trains are travelling towards each other on the same First Continental Railroad track. The train leaving Sioux City, Iowa is going 45 mph and the train leaving Portland, Oregon is going 48 mph, neither train has working brakes. A bald eagle is flying back-and-forth between the trains at 35 mph. How far does the eagle fly before the trains collide?
New parameters. Now say that the eagle flies at 55 mph and starts in Sioux City, Iowa and carries a tiny news video recorder to film the train collision. The track between Sioux City, IOWA and Portland, Oregon is 1600 miles. An eagle can only fly 1000 miles before tiring. Does the eagle get the accident footage?
Software developer interview question. How can you find the second to last element in a null terminated array?
Quoted from DCFAN:For electrical engineers, my father told me this is one they would ask sometimes when he was working:
What is Ohm’s law?
Not an EE and without looking it up: V = IR?
This is a software developer interview question I have actually asked. The candidate said "I don't know". On a Windows platform, what are some methods/approaches you can use for 2 separate processes to communicate?
Another guy I interviewed, seemingly he was right out of college. He did not answer a single technical question I asked him. At the end of the interview he said "I am going on vacation. If I don't respond right away to a job offer don't think that I am not interested."
Quoted from DCFAN:Close
I = V/R
psyche, you got it.
My father actually said some new EE grads would not know it at the job interview. This was around late 80’s. I graduated EE in 93 and could not imagine one of my fellow grads not knowing it. It is like the main building block of electrical.
And conductive heat transfer to an ME, they are sisters formulas, V=IR and q = kA(deltaT).
Quoted from bobmathuse:Sure, but if the eagle sped up more than about 3 mph above that, no. Successful speeds range from 48.001 mph to 58.125 mph.
You are hired. 
Successful speed range would be 45 on the low end though...
Quoted from DCFAN:In my father’s group they were interviewing people for high voltage power transmission at a major power company. Basic electrical concepts are used all the time in power. My father also would tell me about how in the 80’s they had become more selective in hiring because of Human Resources mandates and were forced to interview from only the highest gpa graduates. The problem with that is they would end up with book smart engineers that lacked common sense and the ability to factor in real world issues such as equipment cost vs. benefit and future load demand vs power generation/supply capabilities, etc.
Before the mid to late 1980s, newly graduating electrical engineers could typically be very selective in their job search but it became much harder to find jobs after the late 80’s economic changes.
My brain dump from my years as an ME: P=IV. Rotating drive shaft couplings have steel keys for interlocking the driving shaft to the driven shaft and the shaft coupler has left hand threads.
Quoted from John_I:Working as an Engineer is the opposite of sales or politics. When someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer, it is much better that say "I don't know" and get the answer later than to give a bullshit answer.
I explain this concept to people I am interviewing and then tell them that I am going to ask them in rapid-fire five extremely difficult questions that they most likely don't know the answer to. I tell them there is nothing wrong with not knowing any of the answers and that I want them to only answer if they know the answer for certain, otherwise it is much better to simply say "I don't know". Then I repeat myself and ask if they understand the "game". They always say yes, but as soon as I start firing the questions they just can't help trying to bluff, stall and bullshit on at least two or three of them. I've only had about 25% of the people I've done this with calmly say I don't know to all five questions. Sometimes someone knows the answer to one of the questions and that is a good sign too. Point is its a simple game that shows personality traits and integrity rather than pure book smarts and the people who get it right are generally people who I recommend hiring.
I always liked tests that subtracted points for wrong answers. I have taken the SAT, EIT and GMAT, if I remember right the SAT and EIT did that subtracted points for wrong answers.
Quoted from John_I:Working as an Engineer is the opposite of sales or politics. When someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer, it is much better that say "I don't know" and get the answer later than to give a bullshit answer.
I explain this concept to people I am interviewing and then tell them that I am going to ask them in rapid-fire five extremely difficult questions that they most likely don't know the answer to. I tell them there is nothing wrong with not knowing any of the answers and that I want them to only answer if they know the answer for certain, otherwise it is much better to simply say "I don't know". Then I repeat myself and ask if they understand the "game". They always say yes, but as soon as I start firing the questions they just can't help trying to bluff, stall and bullshit on at least two or three of them. I've only had about 25% of the people I've done this with calmly say I don't know to all five questions. Sometimes someone knows the answer to one of the questions and that is a good sign too. Point is its a simple game that shows personality traits and integrity rather than pure book smarts and the people who get it right are generally people who I recommend hiring.
To me it's always been as important in engineering to give proper credit to who you got your answer or direction from and not to be a just a conduit of information by taking credit for someone else's ideas. And expect the same from others when it's your idea. Hence the no politic rule you mention, those people that don't get it get weeded out quickly in the right environment.
Another piece of advice I'd give my younger self and some of the people I've interviewed: Separate the enthusiasm of the recruiter or HR as an indicator of whether you will get the job, from the experience of the hiring manager/possible co-worker interviews. Their goals regarding you are not the same.
Quoted from Darscot:This would be such a massive waste of money and resources, you have a serious HR problem and that is where people need to be fired.
It's a good policy. If the process works well, meaning quality candidates get hired, no one gets fired. It is a nice out for a company in extenuating circumstances. If a job requires hit-the-ground-running, meaning low learning curve, types of talent, it's a good policy.
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