Problem Decomposition and Creative Thinking Questions

Ability to break down complex and ambiguous research questions into tractable subproblems, identify key assumptions and dependencies, and sequence work for maximal learning. Candidates should show how they convert high level goals into concrete hypotheses, model variants, evaluation criteria, and experimental plans while reasoning about risks, failure modes, and contingency approaches. Interviewers will probe abstraction and modularization strategies, prioritization rationale, and creative methodological choices for novel problems.