# What are some good questions to ask an applicant in a technical interview?
**URL:** https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic
**Created:** [May 5, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685 "2006-05-05T11:00:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/1 "2006-05-05T11:00:45Z")
I’m interviewing some potential interns today and don’t have a lot of time to spend on coming up with a good interview, as I’ve never been the interviewer before. What are some good questions to get a feel for whether or not the potential engineering intern is a bookworm, good engineer, idiot, etc? I don’t want to be the guy who asks why manhole covers are round. 😛
For the most part I figure I’ll show him around the place, explain what we do, see if he can ask insightful technical questions, go over his resume and otherwise just shoot the shit.
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### Author:  [@MaximaSE98](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/MaximaSE98)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:10am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/2 "2006-05-05T11:10:27Z")
ask him y he wants to Intern there…some if his personal interest may affect y he/she wants to work thre…EX…when I interview at Visteon i was jacked bcause they did car shit…and I told them that…but they hired within the company those bastards
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:13am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/3 "2006-05-05T11:13:10Z")
^Good idea. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@Blue\_Eyed\_Devil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Blue_Eyed_Devil)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/4 "2006-05-05T11:16:18Z")
If you have an airplane on a conveyor belt…
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/5 "2006-05-05T11:17:59Z")
:lol:
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### Author:  [@Minglor](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Minglor)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/6 "2006-05-05T11:19:00Z")
> [@AWDrifter](#):
>
> If you have an airplane on a conveyor belt…
DO THIS
The moment you decide
“interview is over” in your head
aka this kids a moron
toss this curve ball at him
when he answers
shake your head a little
write something down
and tell him
“We will get back to you sometime next week”
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### Author:  [@MaximaSE98](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/MaximaSE98)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/7 "2006-05-05T11:19:13Z")
> [@AWDrifter](#):
>
> If you have an airplane on a conveyor belt…
haaa haa ahaaaaaaa
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### Author:  [@Anonymity](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Anonymity)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/8 "2006-05-05T11:33:34Z")
" have you ever seen a grown man naked ? "
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### Author:  [@RedGoober4Life](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/RedGoober4Life)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:37am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/9 "2006-05-05T11:37:55Z")
> [@AWDrifter](#):
>
> If you have an airplane on a conveyor belt…
It’s a very mundane question…
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:43am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/10 "2006-05-05T11:43:10Z")
As much of a good time as the airplane on a conveyor belt was, my personal all time favorite physics problem is still the penguin with a shotgun on a block of ice…
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### Author:  [@duck](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/duck)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/11 "2006-05-05T11:50:53Z")
i like to run through their resume. can usually spot inconsistencies or fibs, lies, truth stretching, etc. ask about previous jobs, ask about experience, knowledge, etc
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### Author:  [@HotRodKid](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/HotRodKid)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/12 "2006-05-05T11:55:33Z")
> [@BikerFry](#):
>
> the penguin with a shotgun on a block of ice…
explain please …
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/13 "2006-05-05T12:00:42Z")
Something about there’s a penguin sitting on a block of ice creating a frictionless surface. If the penguin shoots a shotgun at a 35\* angle to horizontal, does he move? How fast? How far?
I came up with a good one. I put together a few terminal blocks on a din rail. I’m going to ask him if he knows what it is/does and after if he can think of any ways to improve it. One of the little projects will be acquiring and performing all the engineering support to switching to screwless terminals to save assembly time.
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### Author:  [@Zer0DazE](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Zer0DazE)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 12:06pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/14 "2006-05-05T12:06:06Z")
ask what their phone number is in hex
ie. as 2 numbers XXX, and XXXX
🙂
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/15 "2006-05-05T12:07:54Z")
^The only problem with that is that I’d have no way of knowing if they were right or not. 😛 Maybe in binary…
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### Author:  [@duck](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/duck)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 12:14pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/16 "2006-05-05T12:14:13Z")
i interviewed at a security company.
my interviewer was like 6 hours late because he was helping the CEO with his computer. apparently he got some malware. so he made a clone of the system (from before it was fixed) and asked me to do as much as i could in 3 hours while he went out for lunch and caught up on work. so since i was done in 20 minutes i basically just sat around.
hands-on tests are overrated. the company went under a week later. i couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t call me until i saw it on the news.
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### Author:  [@HotRodKid](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/HotRodKid)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/what-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-an-applicant-in-a-technical-interview/11685/17 "2006-05-05T12:17:11Z")
^^^^ no wonder they went under!!!