staged situation
a problem revealed one stage at a time, where each stage depends on the previous answer, so there is no single question to look up and the answers show how someone actually reasons.
example: a merchant was paid twice. the webhook arrived twice. make the second one harmless. engineers who have handled this in production ask where the duplicate came from before reaching for a fix.
staged situations replace definition questions. defining a concept is easy; reasoning about it as the situation changes is what experience looks like.
related terms
- mapping: a 20 to 30 minute conversation, in english, by voice or typing, in which an engineer is asked about their real work through situations that unfold. it produces their skill map.
- understands and has done it: the two separate questions dwij asks about every requirement: can the person reason about the concept, and have they applied it in real work. a single score would blend them and hide the difference.