The paid build onsite (the decision round)

This is the round that decides it. You get a slice of a real codebase, a Slack channel and a deliberately vague brief. Over 8-9 hours you figure out what to build, build it mostly autonomously and then present and defend it. It's the job, compressed into a day.

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.

The trap is to start coding in minute five. The candidates who win spend the first stretch orienting and scoping, so the thing they build is the thing that matters.