Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) EOC Practice Test 2026 - Free Engineering Design Practice Questions and Study Guide

Generating potential solutions is about creating a broad set of ideas and evaluating them to see what could work. Brainstorming with a group helps produce many ideas quickly by building on each other’s thoughts. Research adds the necessary information about constraints, materials, and user needs, so ideas stay feasible and relevant. Testing possible solutions lets you see how well different ideas meet the goals and where they fall short, which guides improvement and comparison.

Together, these activities cover idea generation, information gathering, and early evaluation—the core of coming up with viable options. In contrast, doing only one design experiment doesn’t generate many ideas, writing a long report with no experiments doesn’t develop potential solutions, and presenting final designs happens after options have been generated and evaluated.