1 min lesson
If AI assistance is barred this round
Say what this means in practice: "Save your AI-native value for the practical build where it earns its place."
Step 1 of 2
Generalize before they ask. After the pricing-page case, say “this is one instance of a signal → enrich → score → route → write-back primitive; swap the trigger for a docs-signup or a partnership referral and the same plumbing serves a new program.” That systems-thinking jump from one workflow to a reusable primitive is the highest-value signal in this round.
On the craft screen, AI help may be off so they can test your raw reasoning. Don't fumble for it. Narrate cleanly: the trigger, the dedup step, the waterfall order and why, the threshold, the fallback, the retry/idempotency story. The clean narration is the test - save your AI-native value for the practical build where it earns its place.