1 min lesson
Name the metric that tells you it's working
Work through this: "ML, Infra and Finance disagree on how to recover a slipping migration and none of them report to you. What's the most impactful move and why does it fit Cursor specifically?"
Step 1 of 2
Name the metric that tells you it's workingRecovery without a signal is hope
% of traffic cut over to the new pool, tracked daily against the re-baselined ramp.
If the curve flattens, the recovery is stalling before the date proves it.
$/request on the new pool versus the old, the whole point of the migration.
Paired with p99 latency, so you confirm the saving didn't come from a quality regression.
When the interviewer plays the disagreeing partner, resist arbitrating by opinion. Pull the conversation to the shared number - “both paths should be measured against $/request at the SLA; here's what each costs us” - and let the data carry the call. Influence without authority at Cursor is earned by being the most prepared person in the room with the cleanest framing, not by pulling rank you don't have.
Don't narrate a heroic all-nighter. The execution round rewards structured recovery, not effort - a re-baselined plan, a triaged register, a forcing escalation and a metric. If your answer is mostly “I worked the weekend and got everyone aligned,” you've shown stamina but not the program-management craft they're grading.