1 min lesson
The surfaces few candidates name
Explain the practical point behind "What separates a candidate who actually lives in the product is the underknown surfaces."
Step 1 of 3
The surfaces few candidates namedepth that reads as real usage
Naming Tab, Agent and ⌘K is table stakes. What separates a candidate who actually lives in the product is the underknown surfaces. Drop one or two of these unprompted and the panel registers you as a real user, not someone who skimmed the marketing site.
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Full explanation
Outcomes, not adjectives
The mode dropdown changes the toolset, not the model. Plan mode researches the whole codebase and outputs an editable Markdown plan with zero edits until you switch to Agent; editing that plan costs no tokens.
Debug mode walks you through reproducing an issue and adds instrumentation. Knowing mode = toolset (Agent / Plan / Debug / Ask) is the kind of detail that proves you drive the product daily.
@-mention guarantees a specific file, doc or symbol lands in context instead of relying on semantic search to find it.
It isn't just files: referencing a past chat summarizes it and reads the transcript, so a new agent inherits the summary without carrying all the prior context forward.
Cursor ships a full browser inside the editor that renders your running app. Give a plain-language directive ("increase the padding on the overview heading") and watch it render while Cursor surgically edits only the necessary files.
Agents can self-test in it: clicking around, taking screenshots. It's the front-end demo beat that lands hardest with engineers.
A recently shipped output surface that renders visual components beyond Markdown or Mermaid, like a coverage report or an accessibility result.
You direct an agent to "output the results in a nice canvas." Almost no candidate knows it exists, so naming it signals depth.
Knowing the surfaces is table stakes. The harder skill is translating each one into an outcome a developer feels.
- Surface
- Tab
- The job it does
- Finishes the edit you were about to make.
- The outcome you sell
- Less typing, fewer trips to docs, momentum held.
- Surface
- Agent
- The job it does
- Takes on a whole multi-file task.
- The outcome you sell
- Tedious changes done while you stay on the hard part.
- Surface
- ⌘K
- The job it does
- Targeted edit in the current file.
- The outcome you sell
- A refactor without breaking flow or context-switching.
- Surface
- Codebase context
- The job it does
- Grounds answers in your real repo.
- The outcome you sell
- Fewer hallucinated APIs, so engineers actually trust it.
| Surface | The job it does | The outcome you sell |
|---|---|---|
| Tab | Finishes the edit you were about to make. | Less typing, fewer trips to docs, momentum held. |
| Agent | Takes on a whole multi-file task. | Tedious changes done while you stay on the hard part. |
| ⌘K | Targeted edit in the current file. | A refactor without breaking flow or context-switching. |
| Codebase context | Grounds answers in your real repo. | Fewer hallucinated APIs, so engineers actually trust it. |
Outcomes, not adjectives. "Time saved" and "stay in flow" are the language engineers accept.