Hi Fellow Engineers, I just submitted my answer to this question for an engineering role but I'm curious as to how others would answer this question if this was in your preliminary interview packet?

The most immediate problem with this question is it encourages you to focus on doing mindless GD&T without assessing the scenario like an engineer actually would in real life; it doesn't tell you much about the pins, ie how long are they, how straight are they... you won't be able to answer this question without that information because a tolerance zone implies the pins can be skewed. If you apply GD&T to this scenario as it stands, you are applying it as if the plates are literally residing within one another on the same plane; when the plates are actually assembled in reality, not only will they be at different elevations, but also probably at different angles. Are they assembled by a precision robot or by a some teenager getting paid minimum wage and listening to music on their headphones? What classifies a failed part (ie does someone try to slap the plates together at +/- 5 degrees out of parallel and then toss it in a box if they don't go together)? Does someone have to hold the plates perfectly level to assemble them/ how do they do that? What are the pins made of? Will the surface of the pins wear out before they're ever used to assemble the 10,000th unit? Does your design have to account for wearing of the pins? Is the plate material harder than the pins?

If I got this question in an interview I would focus on assessing the assumptions of the scenario rather than wasting my time trying to do GD&T that would give inherently bad numbers.

/r/AskEngineers Thread