Questions such as these may be related to an operations research-heavy IE position. To field anything among this line of questioning, you should have a strong background in Poisson processes, Markov chains, dynamic programming, queueing systems, and inventory theory. Be mindful that they could ask you about any of those concepts and more.

Other areas of your learning and proficiency we suggest you know are engineering economy, product design, manufacturing systems design analysis, IT, and linear programming and optimization.

Here, you want to explain the concept of the Poisson distribution and how the process is used. For instance, you can say, 'The Poisson process is a model for a series of discrete events where the mean time between events is known, but the exact timing of the events occurs randomly. Also, the Poisson distribution function used in the Poisson process is helpful for characterizing events with very low probabilities. I've used it in modeling arrival processes in queueing theory problems on the job.'

Or if this is an interview for your first industrial engineering job, say, 'I am infinitely qualified to use it after using the methods before graduating from college. Would you like me to work an example or show you printouts from my course work?'