The article presents a solution to the problem of finding the optimal ratio of the height of the cross-section to the width for a rectangular and box-shaped section in the case of oblique bending and eccentric compression. Optimization is performed according to the strength criterion, and for the case of oblique bending of a rectangular beam, a solution was also obtained from the condition of a minimum full deflection. For a rectangular section, the solution is made analytically, and for a box section, numerically using the MATLAB environment and the Optimization Toolbox package. As a numerical method of nonlinear optimization, the interior point method is used. To simplify the solution, the box section is assumed to be thin-walled, i.e. it is assumed that the wall thickness is significantly less than the height and width of the cross section. An estimate of the error of such an assumption is also performed. It has been established that in the case of oblique bending of a rectangular beam, when optimizing according to the strength criterion, the optimal ratio of the cross-sectional height to width is equal to the cotangent of the angle between the force plane and the vertical axis, and when optimizing according to the rigidity criterion, it is the square root of the cotangent of this angle. In the case of eccentric compression of a rectangular beam with eccentricities in two planes, the optimal ratio of the height of the cross section to the width is equal to the ratio of the eccentricity along the vertical and horizontal axes. For a box-shaped section, graphs of the change in optimal parameters depending on the angle between the force plane and the vertical axis in the case of oblique bending, as well as depending on the ratio of eccentricities along the axes in the case of eccentric compression, are plotted.