F26 SSWE Deliverable + Interview
Background
As a SSWE, you will be functioning as the main point of contact for technical knowledge on a project. Thus, you are the main person responsible for turning non-technical requirements for teams in the form of a project proposal into technical instructions for team members to execute on.
In this process, there are two main steps: designing the system that the SWE’s on your team will build, and working with your Project Manager to determine a plan of attack on building that system. This deliverable will allow you to showcase your ability to accomplish both of these tasks.
Take a look at the SSWE Role Outline + Expectations to gain a better understanding of what makes a SSWE! Think about how you can showcase these skills in your deliverable.
Deliverable
This is not a task that’s intended to take unreasonable amounts of time — no need to spend more than 4-5 hours completing the prompt.
Context
A major part of the Senior SWE’s job is developing the technical plan of attack for accomplishing a T4SG project. In order to do this, they must develop and have a good understanding of each of the components of a technical project and how they fit together.
Instructions
Part 1
< 1-2 hours
Please design and draw a systems architecture diagram (example) of how you would architect this application if you were a Senior SWE on this project. You can use a tool like Excalidraw or some other white-board mock-up tool. In addition to designing the architecture, please be prepared to talk about your design decisions during the interview.
Part 2
< 1 hour
Now that you've developed the architecture of your application, how do you actually break down the project into parts that your team members can work on? Part 2 of the deliverable will focus on the high-level of translating your systems architecture diagram into a rough development plan:
What needs to be completed early on to enable later work?
What parts of the project can be worked on in parallel?
What specific technologies would you use and why?
Describe at a high level, what steps you would need to take in order to develop the different parts of your application. Be sure to mention the technologies you would use, and describe how they would come together.
Your response to this section can take the form of bullet points or a short paragraph (~5 sentences) explanation of what will be completed sequentially and why. You can also use this space to justify the choices you made in your systems design. Feel free to create a timeline such as this simple project planning doc (to break down the project into smaller portions)!
Part 3
< 1 hour
Now that you have broken down the project into parts that your team can work on, how do you actually communicate this with your SWEs? Part 3 of the deliverable will focus on translating your development plan into actionable items that your SWEs can understand and follow through:
How will you divide parts of the project between your SWEs?
How will you divide project parts into weekly actions items?
What must your SWEs know/understand in order to complete these action items?
In this part, you must write an example deliverable for your project. Choose any part of the application to focus on, and create a deliverable for one of your SWEs for one week. Feel free to use the weekly deliverable template you've seen in your past teams. Think about what a SWE must know to complete their deliverable and what kind of information/direction would be best for you to provide. Remember, SWEs will vary in terms of past experience and knowledge, and are turning to you to learn!
Submission
Send an email to engineering@t4sg.dev subjected:
[F26 Lead Application] - ROLE - First and Last Name - Submission
During the Interview
How will I present my deliverable?
During the interview, you’ll be asked for:
- a walk-through of your systems architecture design (4 mins)
- a walk-through of your execution plan (4 mins)
- a walk-through of your explanation (DOEs will act as the SWE to whom you have assigned it) (2 mins)
Take this time to explain:
- justification for your decisions (stack, prioritization of features, etc.)
- the feasibility of each task: how long do you think it will take? how many people should work on it?
- how you would help a SWE achieve a portion of this task at a given week
- anything else you’d like to point out!
What else will the interview involve?
- Follow-up questions about your deliverable (5-10 minutes)
- Behavioral questions (5-10 mins)
- Logistics (time commitment, next steps)
- Questions from you!