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Capstone: Mock Loop1 / 2

1 min lesson

Build the loop - 10-minute clock

Explain the order in "Build the loop - 10-minute clock", then say how you would verify the result.

Step 1 of 2

Build the loop - 10-minute clocknarrate as you place each block

  1. 1Convert to one zone first. Pin everything to ET, the office zone and translate the PT interviewer's 12:30 ET floor (9:30 their time) so you never quote a wrong number. Write the candidate's home zone next to her name so the invite shows both.
  2. 2Place the hard constraints before the easy ones. The PT interviewer can only land in the afternoon and the HM is blocked 13:00–14:00 - solve those two against each other first, then fill recruiter and lunch around the gaps.
  3. 3Add buffers, don't pack to the minute. Leave 10–15 minutes between interviews for the candidate to breathe and for a slow interviewer to wrap; bake a real lunch in, not a working one she eats alone.
  4. 4Assign rooms and Zoom explicitly. In-person slots get a room name; the PT interviewer's slot gets a Zoom link in the invite and on the itinerary so nobody hunts for it at 14:00.
  5. 5Write the candidate itinerary last. One clean schedule in her home zone and ET both, with names, roles, format (in-person vs Zoom) and where to physically be.
Learn more

Advanced table

PT floor (12:30 ET) and the HM 13:00–14:00 block both respected

ET slot
10:00–10:45
Interview
Recruiter sync
Who / zone
Recruiter (ET)
Format
In-person, Room A
ET slot
11:00–12:00
Interview
Hiring manager
Who / zone
HM (ET)
Format
In-person, Room A
ET slot
12:00–12:45
Interview
Lunch host
Who / zone
You + candidate
Format
In-person
ET slot
12:45–13:45
Interview
Cross-functional
Who / zone
PT interviewer (9:45 PT)
Format
Zoom, link in invite
ET slot
14:00–15:00
Interview
Cross-functional
Who / zone
ET interviewer
Format
In-person, Room A

PT floor (12:30 ET) and the HM 13:00–14:00 block both respected; lunch placed where it naturally falls.

The curveball - recover live

Mid-drill, the ET cross-functional interviewer at 14:00 drops with a production incident. Don't freeze and don't silently rebook. Surface 2–3 options fast: (1) swap in a pre-cleared backup interviewer for the same 14:00 slot, (2) move the 12:45 Zoom interviewer to 14:00 and pull the recruiter sync earlier to keep the loop back-to-back or (3) if no backup exists, hold the four confirmed and offer the candidate a short Zoom finish the next morning rather than stretching her travel day. State the tradeoff of each in one sentence and recommend one.

Interview move

Narrate your prioritization out loud the whole time, exactly as you would in the live exercise: “I'm placing the PT interviewer and the HM block first because they're the only fixed points, then everything flexible fills around them.” The screener is grading your reasoning as much as the final grid. Silent correctness reads as luck; narrated correctness reads as judgment under load.