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The Interview Loop1 / 2

2 min lesson

The paid practical onsite

Name the parts in "The paid practical onsite" and give the practical job of each one.

Step 1 of 2

This is the round that decides the offer. One or two roughly 8-hour paid days on a real, project-shaped problem, with AI tools including Cursor explicitly allowed. They are not testing whether you can use the model. They are testing your judgment in using it.

What the onsite actually measures
Judgment over AI
Debugging, rejecting bad suggestions and knowing when not to trust the model.
Autonomy
Driving an ambiguous problem with little direction, the way the real job runs.
Scope & time
Stating assumptions, prioritizing and getting to a working, validated result.
Narration
Explaining your decisions as you go, so they can see how you think, not just what you shipped.
  1. 1Frame and assume. Restate the problem in your own words, write down the assumptions you're making and pick the smallest version that proves the idea.
  2. 2Use AI with a leash. Let Cursor draft and accelerate, then read every line, run it and verify the claim before you build on it.
  3. 3Get to a validated result. A working, measured outcome on a narrow slice beats an ambitious half-built system with nothing you can trust.
  4. 4Narrate the decisions. As you cut scope or reject a suggestion, say why out loud or in comments, so the reasoning is legible.
The fastest documented way to fail

Pasting raw model output without verifying it is the clearest documented failure mode. The role is human-in-the-loop research; an AI-native scientist exercises judgment over raw output rather than shipping it blind. If the model hands you a grader and you wire it in without checking what it actually rewards, you've demonstrated the opposite of the trait they hire for.

Say it like this

“Cursor wrote this reward function in one shot, but before I trust it I want to see what it scores on three adversarial cases - a passing edit, a reward-hacked stub and a partial multi-file change. If it can't separate those, I'm not using it.”

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Full explanation

Full explanation

Interview move

Treat scope like the real job, not like a test you must finish. State up front what you're prioritizing and what you're explicitly cutting, then deliver a smaller validated result with the limitations named. A scientist who lands one trustworthy finding and is honest about its bounds outscores one who sprawls and ships something they can't stand behind.

QDuring the onsite, Cursor generates a plausible-looking training script that runs without errors. What's the right move?