1 min lesson
Prepare sharp questions for them
Work through the cases in "Prepare sharp questions for them", pairing each signal with the move that fits.
Step 1 of 2
Prepare sharp questions for themCuriosity is signal
The questions you ask are scored too. Generic ones (“what's the culture like?”) waste the slot; specific ones prove you understand the charter and you've already started doing the job in your head.
Where does the current auth/webhook/agent stack hurt most today?
What's the reliability target now and the biggest gap to it?
Which service contract is the messiest to evolve?
How hands-on is the EM expected to be week to week?
What does talent density look like here and where's the next hire?
How are decisions actually made in a flat org - show me a recent one?
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Full explanation
Build the one-page cheat sheet
Build the one-page cheat sheetYour final artifact
- 90-day plan
- What you'd assess, stabilize and ship in the first quarter on Core Services - reliability baseline, the riskiest contract, the first hire.
- STAR index
- Your five stories as one-line triggers (gap / metric / value) so you can recall any of them under pressure.
- Strong-opinion positions
- Your defensible stances on reliability - at-least-once + idempotency, error budgets over heroics, contracts as first-class - ready to deploy in any round.
Review this the morning of each round. It's the most impactful page you'll carry.
Cursor screens for a credible builder who can also lead - every round is a different angle on that one question. Your final week should make both halves undeniable: you ship clean code unaided and you grow a team that ships more.
QWith one week left and mock scores in hand, why concentrate on your two weakest areas instead of polishing your strengths or covering everything evenly?