I went straight to firmware and host-driver state, which felt reasonable but I was ignoring the obvious.
Start by clarifying the failure conditions and reproducing the issue reliably, then systematically isolate whether the root cause is hardware, firmware, or software by using layered debugging and monitoring. Prioritize data collection (logs, temperature, power) to form hypotheses, and validate each with controlled experiments.
Pro tip: Emphasize the importance of checking thermal effects and power management early, as intermittent failures after a fixed duration often point to thermal drift or power-saving states. Also, mention that you would instrument the system to capture state before failure, not just after.
Reproduce the failure under controlled conditions and gather detailed logs, temperature, power, and timing data to understand the exact failure mode and timing.
Determine if the issue is in hardware (e.g., thermal, power) or software (e.g., firmware, driver) by swapping components, running diagnostics, and checking for firmware updates or known issues.
Based on data, form hypotheses (e.g., thermal throttling, memory leak, watchdog reset) and design experiments to confirm or eliminate each one.
Add temporary instrumentation to capture internal states, error counters, and resource usage leading up to the failure to pinpoint the exact cause.
Implement a fix, then validate with extended stress tests and regression testing to ensure the issue is resolved and no new issues are introduced.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.