2 min lesson
Don't treat the round counts as a contract
Answer "Which stage decides the offer in Cursor's Research Scientist loop and what makes its format distinctive?" Then point to the lesson detail behind your choice.
Step 1 of 3
The number of technical screens, whether the deep-dive is a separate session or folded into a screen and whether you get one onsite day or two all shift by candidate and level. If a recruiter describes a different sequence than what you read here, believe the recruiter. The structure is reliable; the exact counts are not.
The single biggest differentiator for this role is showing that research at Cursor ships to millions and is validated on real user data and that you want exactly that. Name it early. The bar here is production impact, not papers and a candidate who frames their motivation around shipped models reads as already aligned with how the team works.