Discussion & design rounds
Work through 24 rounds covering technical explanation, debugging, systems design, project depth, and safety. Commit each answer before the follow-up appears. For hands-on repository work, use the separate pair-programming exercises.
Technical fundamentalsFree
Explain the mechanism, work the numbers, and state the limits.
- Choose a model from the evidenceFree · Foundational · discussion · 2 questions · ~12 min
- Diagnose the validation gapFree · Foundational · discussion · 3 questions · ~10 min
- Choose the right LLM interventionFree · Intermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
- Can we promise 32k context?Free · Intermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
Debugging and evaluation
Locate the failing stage before choosing a remedy.
- Good documents, wrong answerIntermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
- Chunk a 200-page reportIntermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
- p95 is four secondsIntermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
- The bill tripled on its ownIntermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~10 min
- Halve it without users noticingIntermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
- Know before the customer callsIntermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~12 min
AI systems design
Turn requirements, capacity, safety, and failure modes into a defensible design.
- Design the RAG path before naming toolsIntermediate · design · 2 questions · ~18 min
- Turn an AI product brief into a systemSenior · design · 2 questions · ~22 min
- Take a prototype to live trafficSenior · design · 4 questions · ~20 min
- Does this need an agent?Intermediate · discussion · 3 questions · ~10 min
- Retrieval over ten million documentsSenior · design · 4 questions · ~20 min
- Design the agent, then defend itSenior · design · 4 questions · ~20 min
- Write the design doc with the numbers in itSenior · design · 4 questions · ~20 min
- One model, six teams, one poolSenior · design · 4 questions · ~20 min
Project deep dives
Connect technical decisions to evidence, failure, impact, and reflection.
Safety and red teaming
Reason about attacks, authority, evaluation, and containment.