Week 20 — Consolidation — interview-5¶

At a glance

Phase 5: Scale & Depth · Starts: Mon 08 Feb 2027 · Planned: 16h 45m

Build: Capstone: advanced RAG decision implemented (or rejected with evidence); talk/blog draft

Interview checkpoint: interview-5

Run the full mock loop and score it with the rubric.

By day¶

System Design · 45 min · Gossip Glomers: broadcast + g-counter challenges → Consensus: Raft, leases, fencing · resource w20-sd-1
DSA · 25 min · Insert Interval + Merge Intervals → Intervals · resource w20-dsa-1
Python · 20 min · Rep: free-threaded vs multiprocessing for embedding pre-processing → Concurrency models: threads, processes, free-threaded 3.14t · resource w20-py-1
Communication · 30 min · Grammar: Mixed advanced structures → Week 20 drills · day 1 w20-comm-1

Agentic AI · 60 min · Advanced RAG lab: query rewriting/decomposition + agentic retrieval loop vs single-shot hybrid on the golden set → Advanced RAG: agentic RAG, GraphRAG, LazyGraphRAG w20-ai-1
DSA · 30 min · Non-overlapping Intervals → Intervals · resource w20-dsa-2
Communication · 30 min · Vocabulary: Review and 100-word check → Week 20 drills · day 2 w20-comm-2

DSA · 25 min · Meeting Rooms II + Minimum Interval to Include Each Query → Intervals · resource w20-dsa-3
Architecture · 45 min · Legacy modernization case: migrate a monolith's reporting to event-driven with strangler + CDC — write the phased plan → Legacy modernization & strangler fig w20-arch-1
Python · 20 min · Rep: asyncio vs threads under 3.14t for I/O-bound tool calls → asyncio in depth: TaskGroups, cancellation, backpressure w20-py-2
Communication · 30 min · Speaking drill: A 10-minute technical talk → Week 20 drills · day 3 w20-comm-3

Agentic AI · 60 min · Fine-tuning follow-up: DPO on preference pairs from HITL approvals (design only if no GPU) — expected gains vs risks → Fine-tuning: LoRA/QLoRA, DPO, GRPO — and when not to · resource w20-ai-2
Java/Spring AI · 30 min · JVM tuning: container-aware heap, GC logs for the MCP server under load → JVM performance, GC & Leyden/AOT w20-java-1
Communication · 30 min · Idioms & phrasal verbs: Idiom review round → Week 20 drills · day 4 w20-comm-4

System Design · 45 min · Geospatial indexing: geohash, quadtree, S2 — proximity queries at scale → Ride hailing / proximity service w20-sd-2
DSA · 25 min · Single Number + Number of 1 Bits + Counting Bits → Math, geometry & bit manipulation · resource w20-dsa-4
Python · 20 min · Rep: profile + fix one hotspot in the capstone → Performance & profiling w20-py-3
Communication · 30 min · Writing: Blog post final edit → Week 20 drills · day 5 w20-comm-5

Agentic AI · 120 min · Capstone build: ship the winning retrieval configuration + regression evals; update eval dashboards → Advanced RAG: agentic RAG, GraphRAG, LazyGraphRAG w20-ai-3
DSA · 30 min · Timed coding mock (interview-5): Rotate Image + Spiral Matrix in 30 min → Math, geometry & bit manipulation · resource w20-dsa-5
Java/Spring AI · 30 min · Benchmark virtual threads vs platform threads for blocking tool calls → Virtual threads, structured concurrency & scoped values w20-java-2
Communication · 30 min · Record & shadow: A 10-minute technical talk → Week 20 drills · day 6 w20-comm-6

System Design · 45 min · Timed 45-min SD mock (interview-5): ride hailing / proximity service → Ride hailing / proximity service w20-sd-3
Architecture · 30 min · Write ADR 020 for capstone: API models by default, self-hosted serving only for classify node (cost/latency evidence) → AI-native architecture: LLMs as system components · resource w20-arch-2
Staff+ · 30 min · Artifact: talk or blog draft — 'Evals-first agent engineering: lessons from building an Ops Copilot' → Communicating with executives & stakeholders w20-staff-1
Communication · 30 min · Soft skills + weekly review: Q&A under pressure — checkpoint comm-5: re-record and compare against the baseline rubric → Week 20 drills · day 7 w20-comm-7
Review · 60 min · interview-5: full mock — SD + coding + AI SD + behavioral, score with the unified interview rubric and log gaps into next week's plan → Behavioral & Staff interviews: STAR stories bank w20-rev-1