Design an interview that screens for the real thing

Design an interview that screens for the real thing

Cursor's own loop is a strong template: no AI beyond autocomplete and a paid multi-hour working session on a real project instead of whiteboard theater. Your interview-design answer should rhyme with that ethos.

• Anchor on a realistic backend problem - a webhook delivery path, a token-revocation flow - over a contrived puzzle, so you see how someone actually builds.
• Test fundamentals unaided where it matters: can they reason about idempotency, retries or a race condition without a tool doing it for them.
• Watch how they collaborate and take feedback during the session, since that predicts the next incident bridge better than a clean solution does.
• Keep a structured rubric and a calibrated debrief so the bar is a standard, not a vibe.