For an internship, I completed two phone interviews after my resume was screened.

Two engineers from the team considering my application interviewed me, one at a time. These were friendly discussions about my experience, including a few technical questions to ensure I understood the fundamentals of structural mechanics and had the intuition to keep up upon joining.

Consider a beam loaded as a cantilever.

Where will the highest stresses develop?

Consider a beam welded to a plate. This plate is bolted onto a wall with four bolts. The beam is loaded as a cantilever.

What failure modes come to mind?

You have a beam and are designing it for maximum stiffness.

What variables should you consider in order to achieve this design objective?