Transistor Interview Questions

Last week, I wrote about an interview with a disappointing candidate that was applying for a analog IC design position with FluxCorp. Although he wasn't able to answer many questions regarding his own past designs (or alleged designs), I still thought it necessary to give him a chance by moving to more basic questions, like the transistor. In my opinion, these questions are not difficult. If one bothers to prepare for an interview like this by flipping through some old text books, these questions should be a breeze. Unfortunately, the candidate (let's call him Mr. Flop) in question last week failed horribly, which illustrates a few things. First, he doesn't know how to prepare for an interview. Second, he has not internalized undergrad material in his brain so that he can claim to be qualified to be an analog IC designer. Third, he grossly overstated his abilities on his resume. And I'm already being quite charitable here.

The questions I'm going to outline below are ones which I've encountered over the years both being interviewed as well as interviewing otheres. So here goes.

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