2 min lesson
Mock take-home
Start at the first move in "Mock take-home" and carry it through to the proof.
Step 1 of 3
The take-home is the role's three flagship projects in miniature: a provider abstraction, failover and admission control, small enough to finish in a sitting but real enough to reveal whether you ship production code or a demo.
Box it at three hours and stop at the buzzer. What you choose to leave out and how honestly you document it is graded as hard as what you build.