2027 Engineering Leadership Development Program - Computer Science / Computer Engineering
Posted Sep 8, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
This ELDP track is for Computer Science and Computer Engineering graduates in a manufacturing company. Why do you want to apply your software skills to water products?
What they are checking: Whether they have a real reason to choose an industrial company over a pure software firm.
Tell me about the most technically challenging project you built in school. What was your part?
What they are checking: Whether they can explain their own contribution and the technical decisions they made.
Tell me about a time you led a group without being formally in charge.
What they are checking: Whether they show early leadership ability, which the program is built to develop.
Tell me about a time you failed at something technical. What did you learn?
What they are checking: Whether they handle setbacks well and learn from them, a trait of future leaders.
What would you do
The program rotates you through different assignments. How do you get productive quickly in a new team?
What they are checking: Whether they can learn fast, ask good questions and contribute early on each rotation.
A senior engineer gives you a task with very little direction. What do you do?
What they are checking: Whether they clarify goals and move forward on their own instead of waiting.
How would you explain a software trade-off to a mechanical engineer or a business leader?
What they are checking: Whether they can communicate across disciplines, which matters in a manufacturing company.
About the work
Pentair makes smart, connected water products. How would you design firmware for a device that needs to report data reliably over a weak connection?
What they are checking: Whether they think about retries, buffering and power limits that embedded and IoT work requires.
Walk me through how you debug a problem you cannot reproduce on your own machine.
What they are checking: Whether they have a methodical approach using logs and hypotheses rather than guessing.
How do you think about testing software that controls physical equipment?
What they are checking: Whether they understand that bugs in connected devices can cause real-world damage or safety issues.
Practice this interview out loud.
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Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by Pentair.