I applied online through an employee referral for a different position, but after a phone call with the recruiter, the Falcon 9 manufacturing team requested an interview.

I had two phone screening interviews.

The first was with a manager and lead engineer from the manufacturing group. It was primarily focused on my resume and portfolio that I submitted. They asked questions regarding certain engineering decisions and methods to mass manufacture certain parts. I was asked how I'd optimize a certain design by keeping the performance but reducing the weight of the component. Another question was about the performance effects of adding a certain component to the system.

The recruiter called later saying that they wanted to do an additional technical phone interview. I interviewed with a structures engineer in a similar format. They asked about my academic transcript and had certain questions about my resume and portfolio. I was asked why a certain fabrication process was chosen and why a certain material was chosen for our design. Then they asked the beam question.

I messed up the follow-up question by fixating too much on two potential solutions and completely disregarding the third. I did not effectively state my assumptions, and that bit me in the butt.

I got a call the next day that the team did not want to proceed with my application. I knew by the end of the interview that I would not get the job anyway.

Given a cantilever beam with a load on the free end, where does the beam fail?

Follow-up questions regarding that.