The mind maze of hardware interviews

I’ve been interviewing hardware interviews for like 5 years. Before talking about hardware, let’s talk about something that hardware candidates do poorly, and something that management consultants (yuck) … do really well. What I’m talking about is frameworks.

Management consulting interviews are ALL about frameworks. Revenue and costs, you bet. Porter’s 5 forces, oh yeahhhh, SWOT, I’m just getting started. Management consulting interviews are all about applying existing or custom frameworks because management consultants have to solve complex business problems and troubleshoot through complex business systems. Something else sounds similar right?

Guide me through your mind maze

Most hardware candidates that I see are all about the “let it rip” lifestyle”. I understand that a neat little framework can collapses the moment someone asks, “Okay, now the load is capacitive,” or “the ADC reference is noisy,” but I personally think that frameworks can be used to lead the interviewer down a logical path.

Most hardware interview questions follow this process, so create a similar framework

Let’s not reinvent the wheel here people. A lot of interview questions that I’ve asked follow a format of concepts, design, troubleshooting. Let’s turn this into a framework. I would create 3 columns on your paper or whiteboard.

Let’s take a simple interview question – “design a resistor divider”

• Concept: “So I know what a resistor divider is. Resistor dividers are used typically for [insert applications here] and the equation is [insert equation here]”
• Design: “I need to know a few things first, the supply rail and the target voltage, now I can do the calculation”
• Troubleshoot: “I would study the resistor tolerances, potential noise sources, or stability of the voltage rail itself. These variables can all impact resistor divider functionality”

Congratulations, you just used a framework. Management consultant not necessary. I get that this is a pretty simple example, but I’ve seen this framework used for more involved concepts like RF applications, PCB design, or digital circuits. It’s best to create a framework that emulates a process that an engineer working within a multidisciplinary team might take.

Practice the plan, then execute.

As usual, practice makes perfect. I don’t expect you to gain level 10 framework usage on the first try. I do expect you to be thoughtful in the interview.

Here’s another thing, unfortunately I see Reddit threads asking for interview topics and roadmaps all the time. And while EE interview resources, topics, and problems are a dime a dozen on sources like YouTube, Voltage Learning, or Leetcode, we all need to use our brain once in a while and use the job description. It’s as if the company has provided an interview guide straight from the source.

Personally, I think frameworks need to be used more. I’ve seen enough hardware interviews go like “uhh give me an oscilloscope” and “uhh I think the logic design is incorrect”. Paint the full picture for me and walk me through your thought process.