Senior Engineering Interview Handbook / Chapter 976
Appendix L - Day-of Checklists
A candidate artifact with printable remote and in-person setup cards, round-specific first moves and closing reserves, a full-loop reset, and a short recovery protocol.
Page tools
Carry less than you prepared
A day-of checklist has failed if it asks to be studied. Interview day is too late to learn a framework and too busy for a page of reminders between every round. The useful artifact is smaller: one arrival card, one card for the current round, and one reset that prevents finished work from occupying the next conversation.
Prepare the cards before the loop. Remove any line that does not change an action. Follow the company’s written rules about notes, tools, recording, and confidential material; if notes are not allowed, keep only the six verbs in memory:
land -> frame -> watch -> finish -> record -> release
To land is to enter with the environment settled. Frame makes the first useful move visible. Watch lets the remaining time change the plan. Finish leaves a coherent result rather than one more unfinished branch. Record preserves facts. Release returns attention to the next round.
The evening-before card
Finish logistics once, then stop reopening them. The cutoff is part of the checklist: after the environment is ready, review only first moves and compact references. Do not turn a late discovery into a new study branch.
EVENING BEFORE
SCHEDULE
[ ] Time zone, round order, links or address, planned breaks
[ ] Recruiter or coordinator contact saved outside the meeting platform
RULES
[ ] Written policy for editor, docs, search, notes, AI, recording, screenshots
[ ] Approved accommodations and assistive tools confirmed and reachable
MATERIALS
[ ] Resume, project facts, company questions, and only permitted notes ready
[ ] No proprietary prompt, prior solution, or unapproved recording tool open
BODY AND ROUTE
[ ] Sleep window, food, water, medication, restroom, clothing
[ ] Remote fallback tested OR travel, entry, ID, and arrival margin confirmed
CUTOFF
[ ] Logistics closed; no new preparation branch
The card cannot repair an unresolved access or policy question. Raise that through the agreed contact while there is still time to act. Appendix M contains the longer policy record and request language.
Remote arrival card
Run this early enough to change the setup, not during the opening minute. A backup counts only if it has been tested from the room and device you will actually use.
REMOTE — 20 TO 30 MINUTES BEFORE
[ ] Correct link, clock, coordinator contact
[ ] Power connected; network working; tested fallback reachable
[ ] Selected microphone, camera, captions, and permissions working
[ ] Share the intended window; check readable font and diagram scale
[ ] Approved editor or whiteboard open; known-good run/test path ready
[ ] AI helpers, transcribers, notifications, private tabs, and chats off
[ ] Only permitted notes visible; written policy available without screen leak
[ ] Water, medication, and agreed access tools within reach
FIRST MOVE
Clarify the goal and constraints, work one example if useful,
propose a path, and invite correction.
If bandwidth degrades, protect audio and the shared artifact before video. If sharing, audio, or the network fails, name the symptom once and switch to the tested fallback. A long apology does not restore the round.
In-person arrival card
The aim is not to make the room predictable. It is to arrive with enough margin and enough flexibility to work with the room you find.
IN PERSON — BEFORE LEAVING
[ ] Route includes transit, parking, security, and building-entry margin
[ ] ID, invitation, coordinator contact, and visitor instructions accessible
[ ] Required laptop, charger, adapter, notebook, pen, glasses, medication packed
[ ] Food and water fit the schedule; breaks or accommodations confirmed
[ ] Phone calls and messages finished before entering
IN THE ROOM
[ ] Ask which surface and level of precision the interviewer expects
[ ] Check that marker, board, laptop, and shared text are usable
[ ] Keep the prompt, current work, and result easy for both people to find
[ ] Request water, restroom, or agreed access needs plainly when required
A small board or unfamiliar laptop changes presentation, not the need to show the argument. Write larger, preserve the main path, and say when syntax is pseudocode rather than pretending the medium has no cost.
The card before every round
Fill this in with a few words. The midpoint is not necessarily half the scheduled time. It is the point at which staying in the current mode would make a coherent finish unlikely.
NEXT ROUND:
FIRST MOVE:
MIDPOINT DECISION:
CLOSING RESERVE:
Previous round, one fact:
Next work, one sentence:
For a loop with no break, reduce the reset further:
New round, new work. My first move is ____________________.
Coding and practical-coding card
The clock should move the answer toward visible correctness. Near the end, a working baseline, tests, and an honest account of the remaining edge usually carry more evidence than an ambitious rewrite.
CODING
OPEN
[ ] Restate inputs, outputs, examples, constraints, and invalid cases
[ ] Name a baseline or approach, its invariant, expected cost, and test classes
WATCH
[ ] If exploration no longer reduces uncertainty, choose the safest finish
[ ] If stuck, state the expected invariant and the observed contradiction
[ ] Reserve real time for tests and explanation
FINISH
Result:
Invariant and complexity:
Cases tested:
Remaining edge or next improvement:
For practical coding, add the public contract and state change before internal structure. When a follow-up changes a requirement, identify which policy varies and preserve the contract if that is still the sound choice. Mention durability, concurrency, observability, or security only where the exercise makes one of them consequential.
System-design card
Boxes are useful only after the design has a promise. Establish whose job must succeed, the important scale and reliability shape, and the fact that owns truth. Then draw one end-to-end path that the interviewer can challenge.
SYSTEM DESIGN
OPEN
[ ] Users and job to be done
[ ] Scope, non-goals, scale shape, and success criteria
[ ] Source of truth and facts that need consistency
[ ] First user-visible failure and binding trade-off
WATCH
[ ] Coherent write and read path exist before optional branches
[ ] Responsibilities, bottleneck, failure behavior, and alternative are visible
[ ] Spend remaining depth on the constraint most likely to change the design
FINISH
Shape I would ship first and why:
Trade-off it accepts:
Main risk:
Evidence, metric, or rollout control that would test it:
If the round starts late, confirm the actual end time. Narrow the promise instead of silently compressing every branch into a list of component names.
Project and behavioral card
These rounds need retrieval, not recitation. Establish just enough context to make the decision legible, then allow the interviewer’s question to choose the depth.
PROJECT DEEP DIVE
OPEN: project, my role, stakes, scope, hardest constraint
SHOW: decision I owned, alternatives, implementation reality, team boundary
EVIDENCE: outcome with its caveat
FINISH: what changed in the system or my later practice
BEHAVIORAL
OPEN: stake, my role, decision, result — then necessary chronology
SHOW: my judgment without erasing the team
CONFLICT: the other side's reasonable concern
EVIDENCE: consequence, measurement, or observable outcome
FINISH: what remained imperfect and what I now do differently
When redirected, answer the new question directly. A useful bridge is shorter than a defense: “Let me answer the ownership part directly.”
Hiring-manager and candidate-question card
This conversation is mutual evidence gathering. Protect enough time to learn how the role actually works rather than spending the entire round delivering another polished project tour.
HIRING MANAGER / CANDIDATE QUESTIONS
MY FIT
[ ] Why this scope; strongest matching evidence; honest gap to understand
THREE UNCERTAINTIES
1.
2.
3.
ASK THE RIGHT WITNESS ABOUT
[ ] Team mission and current work
[ ] Decision rights, operations, planning, review, and conflict
[ ] Senior-level success, constraints, and risks in the role
RECORD AFTERWARD
Concrete answer:
Follow-up or contradiction:
Decision this answer may change:
Choose questions from genuine uncertainty. “What is the culture like?” asks for an adjective; “Tell me about a recent decision the team reversed” asks for work that can support a judgment.
The full-loop reset
Do not perform a hiring verdict between rounds. Preserve the few facts that could guide later review, then close the surface and prepare the next one.
AFTER EACH ROUND — FOUR LINES
Round and topic:
Completed or shown:
Open item or promised follow-up:
Next round and first move:
Keep the note within the company’s rules. Do not copy a proprietary prompt, record another person’s voice without consent, or convert an interviewer’s expression into a score.
LONG BREAK
[ ] Send only an urgent logistics message or required factual correction
[ ] Water, food, restroom, medication, movement, or stillness
[ ] Open the next link or locate the next room
[ ] Review only the next first move
[ ] Stop replaying the previous round
AFTER THE FINAL ROUND
[ ] Consolidate factual notes while memory is clear
[ ] Record promised follow-up, expense, schedule, or correction
[ ] Capture what the company revealed about scope and operating conditions
[ ] Delay the deep review until the loop has a real boundary
When the plan breaks
Use the same recovery shape for a dead link, missing interviewer, failed tool, shortened round, missing access feature, or instruction that conflicts with the written policy:
1. NAME the observed condition once.
2. PROTECT the clock or ask how the remaining time should be used.
3. SWITCH to the tested fallback, or ESCALATE through the agreed contact.
4. RESUME from the last shared point.
Useful language is factual and specific:
The audio cut out after “[last phrase].” Could you repeat the last sentence?
The written instruction says [rule]. Before I continue, could we confirm
which policy applies?
The approved access feature is not available. Could we enable it before
starting or contact the coordinator?
We have [time] remaining. Which part would you like me to prioritize?
I made [specific mistake]. I am correcting it by [next move].
Interview conditions will not always cooperate. The cards do not make the day controllable; they keep surprise local. Land in the conversation that is happening, finish the work that time allows, and give the next conversation its own beginning.