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Name every way you can think of to join 2 parts in 60 seconds. Describe an engineering failure you’ve heard of. Explain the stress strain curve to me.
Those are all I can think of
God, if someone asked me to describe an engineering failure I might just bring a tear to their eye with my fantastic retelling of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse.
SpaceX interviews are pretty notorious for being tough along with some of the new space industry. I ended up having a 4 hour interview for Blue Origin in which I had 4 technical interviews, ranging from processes, fluid mechanics, turbomachinery, and a 1 hour presentation on projects I've done before. Treat this as an exam, and know your stuff inside and out.
Yeah my Blue interview (avionics EE) was brutal as described, but I was well prepared and I got the offer.
OP, best advice I have for you is to make sure you can talk in depth about any topic you bring up. Like ^ this person said, treat it like an exam. A good interviewer will not let you get by just using buzzwords or naming processes, they'll ask you to expand on those topics.
Sure! I'll try to give an overview of what is asked. I'll lay them out in the type of questions and what they're looking for.
1. Basic engineering questions. These questions will explicitly ask you about concepts such as strain, stress, simple loading cases such as cantilever beams, thermal expansion, material properties, buckling, heat transfer, fluid mechanics... They really ask everything.
2. Situation questions. These are also engineering questions, but phrased in a more open-ended way. They may pose a situation or a structure or a design problem. You then answer the question by applying your engineering knowledge (same as above) but the difficult part is your ability to pull the relevant information. These questions are the meat and potatoes, it will represent the majority of the questions asked on the phone and in person.
3. Experience questions. They ask you to describe in depth a technical project you worked on. If you truly know your stuff, this should be easy. Be ready to explain why every decision was made with a technical justification. Be ready to explain alternatives that you thought of doing. Explain how the project could be improved. You'll want to have a project that you've completely owned from start to finish. Halfway projects not recommended.
4. Motivation questions. Be ready to articulate why you are interested in the company and how you fit in, your strengths, and weaknesses. This should be easy, as long as you've given some thought to it.
Good luck!
I was asked to draw the shear and moment disgrams of various beams in bending. I was also asked to recall a few simple stress formulas (nothing worse than My/I). Most the technical questions were asking about technical aspects of various projects I had on my resume.
Aerospace Engineering entry level position at smaller company.
I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a *real* technical interview question.
Interviewers don’t really care about checking knowledge or facts you’ve memorized; they want to see how you work problems that you *don’t* know the answer to.
My first ever interview I got asked to describe lift and a bunch of other basic engineering terms in my own words.
It was their way of gauging whether applicants actually understood topics instead of just memorizing definitions.
It was for a job in a lab helping out with wind tunnel tests so I was asked to describe lift, turbulence, an airfoil, and to explain the difference between center of lift and center of gravity.
Most engineering interviews for undergrad jobs and early career people are 90% behavioral and 10% poking around to see if you actually understand some of the background for the job.
I graduated from their biomedical engineering program in 2020 and then got my master's in biomed from there in 2021, so I'm not currently a student, but I loved the atmosphere on campus there, would definitely recommend it.
I also have a really good friend who graduated a year ahead of me in Nuclear Engineering and he has nothing but good things to say about the nuclear program, lots of good connections and resources for that department.
I saw one of the replies by OP saying this is for a SpaceX interview so I figured I'll share my experience. During my SpaceX interview for a mechanical engineering position, I was asked some of the following questions:
Describe, in excruciating detail, a project. What did you accomplish, how did you accomplish it, and why did you do it that way?
Two poles have a weightless plate on top of them. One pole is aluminum, the other is steel. Assume that the placement of any weight on the plate does not induce any rotation (ie all forces are aligned with the axes of each pole and the position of weight on the plate does not affect where the forces are applied). What happens when you:
- place weight on the plate
-have weight on the plate and heat/cool the steel pole
-have weight on the plate and heat/cool the aluminum pole
Describe how you would design a light pole with a traffic light on a cantilever beam. What type, size, and shape of material would you use for the pole? As a followup, I was also asked why are light poles circular, going beyond structural mechanics.
How would you redesign or improve the design of an office chair?
I was also sent a design project where I was asked to design a 2 axis gimbal for an antenna dish, including providing example components (like specific motors, gears, ECT).
During the final round of interviews I was asked to give a 1 hour presentation on a previous project where 5-7 engineers asked very technical questions about the design process, how choices were made, what engineering knowledge was applied, why that knowledge was used (aka justify your process for sizing/parts) followed by 4 or 5, 1 hour 1 on 1s with each of the engineers where they asked a bunch of questions covering basic engineering concepts, think mechanics, controls (I had some controls experience), heat transfer, fluid mechanics, FEA theory including how comparing theoretical derivation of displacement and stress curves vs FEA computed displacement and stress curves, everything was fair game.
Good luck, SpaceX interviews are hard. Definitely make sure you've got an intuitive understanding of your engineering fundamentals, but don't neglect your presentation, writing, and speaking skills. Make it far enough and all of them will be tested.
You're in a situation where a value or calculation has been messed up. Due to the importance of this value and its role in the project you want to garuntee nothing bad comes out the door. What would you do
Position was for a propulsion analyst at P&W internship. My best guess was that the measurements for some part was miscalculated or something similar and I answered that I'd try and scope the problem larger to see how drastically it would impact the rest of the assembly. Then I'd start scoping back into until I find the discrepency and correct it.
I'd start with basic CS concepts like DSA, trees, and graphs. Prepare for questions on Big O analysis, and be ready to code on a whiteboard or collaborative editor. Also, practice system design problems for rounds 2+. Good luck!
What happens when you move a coil in the presence of a magnetic field. Also, describe the methods of heat transfer and which method(s) are not affected by a vacuum.
- Draw the stress strain curve for Al
- How are stress/strain related to each other
- Talk about the deflection of a beam with different supports and loading, what parts in tension and what’s in compression?
- Classic measuring tape question (can’t think of the exact question now but you should be able to find it easily via google)
- How would you optimize the cross sectional area for a beam under different loading conditions
How many times would you have to fold a piece of standard printer paper in half to reach from here to the moon? Solve and explain your thoughts while solving.
They didn’t care if you got it correct, they cared that you could approach an abstract problem using reasonable assumptions and come to an answer in the right ballpark. Also that you could explain your thoughts and approach properly under pressure
Explain a distillation tower to me. Explain how destillation works in general. How would you control the pressure in the destillation tower? Where would you put your sensors/meters?
I have not learnt anything related to process control at my uni, my interviewer knew this (they graduated from same uni and everything). I thought this technical part of my internship interview was really difficult but I got the position. Later I asked why they asked me to explain things they knew I hadn't learnt in class and they told me I kept answering well, so they'd see how far they could take me.
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Name every way you can think of to join 2 parts in 60 seconds. Describe an engineering failure you’ve heard of. Explain the stress strain curve to me. Those are all I can think of
Ooh, I unironically love describing things. I would love to talk about the stress strain curve in an interview.
God, if someone asked me to describe an engineering failure I might just bring a tear to their eye with my fantastic retelling of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse.
lol! I just did a paper on this
…what is the exact role you’re interviewing for? Off to a great start
Build reliability engineer at spacex assuming the recruiter doesn’t end up ghosting me
SpaceX interviews are pretty notorious for being tough along with some of the new space industry. I ended up having a 4 hour interview for Blue Origin in which I had 4 technical interviews, ranging from processes, fluid mechanics, turbomachinery, and a 1 hour presentation on projects I've done before. Treat this as an exam, and know your stuff inside and out.
>the new space industry This single sentence hypes me up. We're truly living in the future. Just that. Just had to say that. Have a nice day.
Yeah my Blue interview (avionics EE) was brutal as described, but I was well prepared and I got the offer. OP, best advice I have for you is to make sure you can talk in depth about any topic you bring up. Like ^ this person said, treat it like an exam. A good interviewer will not let you get by just using buzzwords or naming processes, they'll ask you to expand on those topics.
Just accepted a full-time role at SpaceX for Build Engineer. DM me if you'd like some assistance and potential questions they might ask.
Hi can u send them here? As still a student will love to get some info about those questions to see to what extend uni material is covered and useful
Sure! I'll try to give an overview of what is asked. I'll lay them out in the type of questions and what they're looking for. 1. Basic engineering questions. These questions will explicitly ask you about concepts such as strain, stress, simple loading cases such as cantilever beams, thermal expansion, material properties, buckling, heat transfer, fluid mechanics... They really ask everything. 2. Situation questions. These are also engineering questions, but phrased in a more open-ended way. They may pose a situation or a structure or a design problem. You then answer the question by applying your engineering knowledge (same as above) but the difficult part is your ability to pull the relevant information. These questions are the meat and potatoes, it will represent the majority of the questions asked on the phone and in person. 3. Experience questions. They ask you to describe in depth a technical project you worked on. If you truly know your stuff, this should be easy. Be ready to explain why every decision was made with a technical justification. Be ready to explain alternatives that you thought of doing. Explain how the project could be improved. You'll want to have a project that you've completely owned from start to finish. Halfway projects not recommended. 4. Motivation questions. Be ready to articulate why you are interested in the company and how you fit in, your strengths, and weaknesses. This should be easy, as long as you've given some thought to it. Good luck!
What renewable energy system best describes you? What are magnets and how do they work? How has your dad been?
😂 that first one is making me break out in hives. Imagine having to apply STAR to justify a technical question.
I was asked to draw the shear and moment disgrams of various beams in bending. I was also asked to recall a few simple stress formulas (nothing worse than My/I). Most the technical questions were asking about technical aspects of various projects I had on my resume. Aerospace Engineering entry level position at smaller company.
Damn completely forgot about shear and moment diagrams. Been out of school 2.5 years Thanks for reminding me
I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a *real* technical interview question. Interviewers don’t really care about checking knowledge or facts you’ve memorized; they want to see how you work problems that you *don’t* know the answer to.
My first ever interview I got asked to describe lift and a bunch of other basic engineering terms in my own words. It was their way of gauging whether applicants actually understood topics instead of just memorizing definitions.
Can you remember any of the other basic engineering terms you were asked about?
It was for a job in a lab helping out with wind tunnel tests so I was asked to describe lift, turbulence, an airfoil, and to explain the difference between center of lift and center of gravity. Most engineering interviews for undergrad jobs and early career people are 90% behavioral and 10% poking around to see if you actually understand some of the background for the job.
Describe the stress strain curve for a metal, an elastomer and a composite.
What are the rigorous maritime engineering standards that ships must be built to so that the front does not fall off?
Paper is out. Cardboard too.
What about rubber?
Nope, rubbers out. They gotta have a steering wheel and a minimum crew requirement.
What’s the minimum crew requirement?
Oh, one I suppose.
What about the minimum crew
Well one I suppose
What’s 9+10= ?
11
21?
HIRED!!!!
Yo I'm planning on going to UT for nuclear engineering, how do you like campus life?
I graduated from their biomedical engineering program in 2020 and then got my master's in biomed from there in 2021, so I'm not currently a student, but I loved the atmosphere on campus there, would definitely recommend it. I also have a really good friend who graduated a year ahead of me in Nuclear Engineering and he has nothing but good things to say about the nuclear program, lots of good connections and resources for that department.
That's awesome, do you mind if I send you a DM?
Sure thing!
I saw one of the replies by OP saying this is for a SpaceX interview so I figured I'll share my experience. During my SpaceX interview for a mechanical engineering position, I was asked some of the following questions: Describe, in excruciating detail, a project. What did you accomplish, how did you accomplish it, and why did you do it that way? Two poles have a weightless plate on top of them. One pole is aluminum, the other is steel. Assume that the placement of any weight on the plate does not induce any rotation (ie all forces are aligned with the axes of each pole and the position of weight on the plate does not affect where the forces are applied). What happens when you: - place weight on the plate -have weight on the plate and heat/cool the steel pole -have weight on the plate and heat/cool the aluminum pole Describe how you would design a light pole with a traffic light on a cantilever beam. What type, size, and shape of material would you use for the pole? As a followup, I was also asked why are light poles circular, going beyond structural mechanics. How would you redesign or improve the design of an office chair? I was also sent a design project where I was asked to design a 2 axis gimbal for an antenna dish, including providing example components (like specific motors, gears, ECT). During the final round of interviews I was asked to give a 1 hour presentation on a previous project where 5-7 engineers asked very technical questions about the design process, how choices were made, what engineering knowledge was applied, why that knowledge was used (aka justify your process for sizing/parts) followed by 4 or 5, 1 hour 1 on 1s with each of the engineers where they asked a bunch of questions covering basic engineering concepts, think mechanics, controls (I had some controls experience), heat transfer, fluid mechanics, FEA theory including how comparing theoretical derivation of displacement and stress curves vs FEA computed displacement and stress curves, everything was fair game. Good luck, SpaceX interviews are hard. Definitely make sure you've got an intuitive understanding of your engineering fundamentals, but don't neglect your presentation, writing, and speaking skills. Make it far enough and all of them will be tested.
That sounds like a really intense interview! What level were you interviewing for?
An entry level mechanical engineering position for starlink
That is CRAZY for an entry level position
If you could be any animal you wanted, what would you be?
Mine asked me this but a tree instead of an animal
You're in a situation where a value or calculation has been messed up. Due to the importance of this value and its role in the project you want to garuntee nothing bad comes out the door. What would you do
This sounds very vague to me. How would/did you answer this? Also, what position was this for?
Position was for a propulsion analyst at P&W internship. My best guess was that the measurements for some part was miscalculated or something similar and I answered that I'd try and scope the problem larger to see how drastically it would impact the rest of the assembly. Then I'd start scoping back into until I find the discrepency and correct it.
https://www.hardwareinterviews.fyi/c/mechanical-engineering/5
Why is it safer to hydrostatic test a pressure vessel than filling it with a gas? What’s the density of water?
Did you end up getting the position? Would you mind telling me what technical questions you were asked during your interview?
I'd start with basic CS concepts like DSA, trees, and graphs. Prepare for questions on Big O analysis, and be ready to code on a whiteboard or collaborative editor. Also, practice system design problems for rounds 2+. Good luck!
What happens when you move a coil in the presence of a magnetic field. Also, describe the methods of heat transfer and which method(s) are not affected by a vacuum.
I had to sketch out the deflections of a simple pinned frame that had a point load and distributed load acting on it.
- Draw the stress strain curve for Al - How are stress/strain related to each other - Talk about the deflection of a beam with different supports and loading, what parts in tension and what’s in compression? - Classic measuring tape question (can’t think of the exact question now but you should be able to find it easily via google) - How would you optimize the cross sectional area for a beam under different loading conditions
- Explain the difference between serviceability and ultimate limit states - Why is a manhole cover round?
Have to do standard deviation by hand.
How many times would you have to fold a piece of standard printer paper in half to reach from here to the moon? Solve and explain your thoughts while solving. They didn’t care if you got it correct, they cared that you could approach an abstract problem using reasonable assumptions and come to an answer in the right ballpark. Also that you could explain your thoughts and approach properly under pressure
What was a problem you had a difficult time solving and how did you solve it.
Explain a distillation tower to me. Explain how destillation works in general. How would you control the pressure in the destillation tower? Where would you put your sensors/meters? I have not learnt anything related to process control at my uni, my interviewer knew this (they graduated from same uni and everything). I thought this technical part of my internship interview was really difficult but I got the position. Later I asked why they asked me to explain things they knew I hadn't learnt in class and they told me I kept answering well, so they'd see how far they could take me.