2 min lesson
Stage 4 - culture & values
Talk this through in your own words: "A teammate at the culture-stage meal challenges one of your opinions about developer marketing. How should you respond?" Finish with the next move.
Step 1 of 2
Often this is informal - a meal or a chat with potential teammates rather than a structured interview. It is still a real evaluation and for senior or visible roles it carries serious weight. They're reading for truth-seeking, taste and whether you're in this for the long haul.
Use this stage map to decide what evidence belongs in each round. Memorizing the order is the shallow version. For every stage, prepare one artifact, one story and one question that shows how you reason in the role.
- Truth-seeking
- Do you form opinions from first-hand evidence and say what's true even when it's inconvenient?
- Taste & craft
- A high bar on writing, demos and correctness - do you sweat the details?
- Why Cursor, long-term
- Dedication to the mission of teaching the future of software engineering.
- Depth
- They'll probe past projects deeply, not just hear the highlight reel.
Bring real opinions, not safe ones. Cursor values spirited debate, so a strong, evidence-backed take you can defend is a plus rather than a risk.
- Two or three sharp opinions on developer marketing or coding agents that you can back with first-hand evidence - what you tried, what happened, what you concluded.
- A past project you can go deep on: the hard decision, what you got wrong and what you'd do differently now.
- A genuine, specific reason this is a multi-year commitment for you, not a stepping stone.
When a teammate pushes back on one of your opinions, don't fold to be agreeable and don't dig in to win. Engage the evidence: “Fair - here's the data point that moved me and here's what would change my mind.” That's the truth-seeking behavior they're hiring for, demonstrated live rather than claimed.
A meal feels relaxed, but team placement frequently follows from these conversations and a flat hesitant non-answer to “why Cursor, long-term” can sink an otherwise strong loop. Prepare for it like a graded round, then let it feel like a conversation.