2 min lesson
Values rehearsal & final readiness
Walk through each part of "Values rehearsal & final readiness", then explain what each one does.
Step 1 of 3
The behavioral round checks whether you're builder-first and attacker-minded, whether you own problems end-to-end with little guidance and whether you tell the truth about what you don't know. Run your stories out loud, map each to a Cursor value and tighten every one to under two minutes.
You need three stories ready, each a clean STAR with a quantified result. Rehearse them spoken, not read - the gap between a story you've written and a story you can deliver in 90 seconds is the gap this round measures.
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Full explanation
The two-minute shape
The two-minute shapeTighten every story to this
- 1Situation (20s). The system, the stakes and the trust boundary at risk. No backstory.
- 2Action (60s, first person). What you did - the attacker reasoning, the design choice, the build. “I” not “we.”
- 3Result (30s, quantified). The outcome in numbers: vulns prevented, threat surface reduced, adoption rate, time-to-detect.
- 4Reflection (10s). What you'd do differently or carried forward. This is where truth-seeking shows.
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Advanced table
Final readiness checklist - score each axis 1–5
Final readiness checklist - score each axis 1–5Across all five rounds
- Axis
- Timed coding + security
- Ready (4–5)
- Solve medium-hard with a threat lens, narrate live
- Gap (≤2)
- Stall on the code or miss the security overlay
- Axis
- Secure code review
- Ready (4–5)
- Catch IDOR + injection + secret, rank, fix the class
- Gap (≤2)
- Miss a class or only patch the line
- Axis
- Threat modeling
- Ready (4–5)
- Boundaries first, JIT/least-privilege, friction tradeoff
- Gap (≤2)
- Jump to controls, skip the boundaries
- Axis
- Agent security
- Ready (4–5)
- Name the boundary, lethal-trifecta, contain not prompt
- Gap (≤2)
- Reach for a guardrail prompt
- Axis
- Behavioral + why Cursor
- Ready (4–5)
- Three STAR stories <2 min, product-grounded why
- Gap (≤2)
- Stories ramble or why is generic
| Axis | Ready (4–5) | Gap (≤2) |
|---|---|---|
| Timed coding + security | Solve medium-hard with a threat lens, narrate live | Stall on the code or miss the security overlay |
| Secure code review | Catch IDOR + injection + secret, rank, fix the class | Miss a class or only patch the line |
| Threat modeling | Boundaries first, JIT/least-privilege, friction tradeoff | Jump to controls, skip the boundaries |
| Agent security | Name the boundary, lethal-trifecta, contain not prompt | Reach for a guardrail prompt |
| Behavioral + why Cursor | Three STAR stories <2 min, product-grounded why | Stories ramble or why is generic |
The loop grades the floor: spend your last hours on the lowest axis.
Interactive diagram. Tab through its regions; each focused region shows its detail in the panel below.
Every axis is blocking - the loop grades your floor, so a sub-3 anywhere sinks it. Weights show where this role's edge is decided, not which axis you can skip.
Date each mock score so prep becomes a visible trend, not a vibe - you can watch your weakest axis actually climb between sittings instead of just feeling busy.