I haven't followed the whole thread (I'm on digest mode), but I'll try
to offer some help. Without much to go on regarding this particular
position, I have done a lot of interviewing of engineering and IT
candidates. It's not the problems that are important, but the way you
approach it. There will always be newer designs as time goes on, and
it's your approach that'll let you adapt, not knowledge of a specific
chip or board. Otherwise, you'll quickly become obsolete. If you'll be a
repair guy, then how you'll narrow down the symptoms and what tools and
techniques you'll use will be important. If a designer, then it may be a
design flaw you'll be chasing and how you would approach helping a
fellow engineer who designed that board (crosstalk issues, line loading,
etc). If a network admin, then what depth might you have that could save
some time and $$ for the company should this happen to you? Any network
guy can swap a card, but if you could actually locate and resolder a
faulty joint, or verify the fault, then you might have the edge...

When I would interview fresh grads, they all had the same level of
knowledge, very little real life experience, and all thought they would
be top-dog engineer one day. I would give them questions like yours to
see if they had ever done anything 'for real'. If so, then they either
had real interest in engineering (it wasn't just a job) and/or they
would at least have a rudimentary understanding of how theoretical
differed from making products, and how to debug their own boards one
day. I'd also throw one at them that was out of their specialty, but
still engineering. My favorite was during one winter. I got snowed in at
Penn State by noon and the radiator in the little interview room I was
given made noise but wasn't working. I asked each candidate how they
would try to diagnose or fix it. About half just shrugged... Some had
good approaches and a few others had actually thought about the ones in
their dorm and had come up with an analysis of the system.

-Skip




-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist