1 min lesson
Don't go heads-down and solo the room
Put yourself in this case: "It's the paid onsite and you have a strong solo plan for the project. What balance should an EM candidate strike and why?" Give the clearest next step.
Step 1 of 2
The round is explicitly collaborative - they're hiring a player-coach.
Balance the two hats explicitly. Land a real, working piece yourself so they see you can still build, then spend visible energy making the team's output better: a sharp clarifying question early, a quick review of someone's PR, a scope cut you propose to hit the deadline. Narrate the prioritization so they see the manager judgment and the builder ability in the same day.
“We've got about three hours left, so I'd cut the admin UI and ship the delivery path with retries and an idempotency key - that's the part that's actually load-bearing. I'll take the consumer; can you take the signing verification and we'll integrate at the half-hour mark?”