Week 22 — Write-ups + STAR bank II¶

At a glance

Phase 6: Capstone + Interview Loop · Starts: Mon 22 Feb 2027 · Planned: 16h 45m

Build: Capstone: README, demo video, blog post #1 (eval-driven agent development)

By day¶

System Design · 45 min · Timed SD mock: chat system (redo) — focus on deep dives and trade-off articulation → Chat / messaging system w22-sd-1
DSA · 25 min · LLD: parking lot with OOP + extensibility discussion → Concurrency & low-level design problems (LRU, rate limiter, parking lot) w22-dsa-1
Python · 20 min · Rep: implement LRU with OrderedDict and with dict+linked list; compare → Python data model & dunder protocols w22-py-1
Communication · 30 min · Grammar: Precision under time pressure: fewer errors while thinking aloud → Week 22 drills · day 1 w22-comm-1

Agentic AI · 60 min · Write blog post #1: eval-driven development of the Ops Copilot (error analysis → judges → CI gates) with real numbers → Evals I: error analysis, LLM-as-judge, eval-driven development · resource w22-ai-1
DSA · 30 min · LLD: in-memory pub/sub with concurrent subscribers → Concurrency & low-level design problems (LRU, rate limiter, parking lot) w22-dsa-2
Communication · 30 min · Vocabulary: Design-interview vocabulary: bottleneck, trade-off, blast radius → Week 22 drills · day 2 w22-comm-2

DSA · 25 min · Revision: Coin Change + Word Break (DP weak spot) → Dynamic programming 1-D · resource w22-dsa-3
Architecture · 45 min · Architecture review of the capstone using your ADR set: find stale decisions, write superseding notes → The architect role & trade-off thinking w22-arch-1
Python · 20 min · Rep: asyncio interview questions — explain event loop, cancellation, TaskGroup semantics → asyncio in depth: TaskGroups, cancellation, backpressure w22-py-2
Communication · 30 min · Speaking drill: Narrating a system design out loud → Week 22 drills · day 3 w22-comm-3

Agentic AI · 60 min · Multi-agent retrospective: where a second agent helped/hurt; document failure modes observed → Multi-agent systems: when, how, and failure modes w22-ai-2
Java/Spring AI · 30 min · Spring AI RAG + MCP demo polish; record Java side of the demo → RAG with Spring AI & pgvector w22-java-1
Communication · 30 min · Idioms & phrasal verbs: Thinking-aloud phrases: let me walk through, to step back → Week 22 drills · day 4 w22-comm-4

System Design · 45 min · Replication + partitioning L3 drill (10 questions out loud) → Partitioning & sharding, consistent hashing w22-sd-2
DSA · 25 min · Revision: Course Schedule II + Redundant Connection → Graphs: BFS, DFS, topological sort, union-find · resource w22-dsa-4
Python · 20 min · Rep: Pydantic v2 interview questions — validation modes, performance, serialization → Pydantic v2 in depth w22-py-3
Communication · 30 min · Writing: Summary sections and profile → Week 22 drills · day 5 w22-comm-5

Agentic AI · 120 min · Capstone build: README (architecture, run locally, evals, costs), 5-min demo recording, tag v1.0 → LLM observability: Langfuse, Phoenix, OTel GenAI semconv w22-ai-3
DSA · 30 min · Revision: Minimum Window Substring + Trapping Rain Water → Sliding window · resource w22-dsa-5
Java/Spring AI · 30 min · Java concurrency interview drill: virtual threads, structured concurrency, CompletableFuture → Virtual threads, structured concurrency & scoped values w22-java-2
Communication · 30 min · Record & shadow: Narrating a system design out loud → Week 22 drills · day 6 w22-comm-6

System Design · 45 min · Written design (timed): multi-tenant LLM gateway redo in 45 min → Design a multi-tenant LLM gateway w22-sd-3
Architecture · 30 min · Write ADR 022 for capstone: tenant isolation model for a multi-team rollout (pool with row-level security) → AI-native architecture: LLMs as system components · resource w22-arch-2
Staff+ · 30 min · STAR bank part 2: 6 Staff-level stories (strategy, cross-org alignment, tech debt, incident, hiring bar, AI adoption) with metrics → Behavioral & Staff interviews: STAR stories bank w22-staff-1
Communication · 30 min · Soft skills + weekly review: Handling ambiguity out loud → Week 22 drills · day 7 w22-comm-7
Review · 60 min · Retro + flashcards: all P0 AI topics; explain-it-back guardrails and routing → Guardrails & security: OWASP LLM/Agentic Top 10, prompt injection w22-rev-1