I once completely stumped a candidate with the simple question [1]:
'What is an embedded system?'
The poor guy floundered, which told me he had problems dealing with 'new' (perhaps unknown) territory, so he was ultimately rejected.
I am always interested in just what the candidate thinks what an embedded system *is*; then we can move on to what *my* embedded systems are :)
I also want to know how a person will react when confronted with completely new things, which is common in embedded systems (those who have been in it more than 20 years will understand this ;)
[1] There is enough debate about this amongst those of us who have been doing it for decades. I can't expect someone new to
*know* what it is as we can't agree on what it is. Indeed, if someone claimed to
*know* what it is, as a definable object, I would be very sceptical indeed; there's a difference between confidence and arrogance (although it's not arrogance if you're right ;)
Cheers
PeteS