Assessments

Every piece of graded work in the course, what it is worth, and when it is due.

Three pieces of work, each tied to the week it grows out of: an audit of retry logic already out in the wild, a policy you write and then defend to a panel, and a case you argue cold with the outcome withheld. The weights below sum to 100 and rise across the semester, because the case in week 12 asks for everything the first eleven weeks taught. related: connects each one back to the lab that sets it up.

A magnifying glass held over a tangled knot of cord

Retry audit

Find every retry in a real codebase and diagnose each one against the four weeks that got you here: safe to repeat, backed off, jittered, and survivable when ten thousand clients recover at once.

Due 19 March 2027 · Weight: 25%

A wax seal stamped twice onto the same document, the second impression doubled over the first

A retry policy you have to defend

Write a retry policy for a real service, then defend every number in it against a panel assigned to find the one you cannot justify.

Due 30 April 2027 · Weight: 35%

A gavel resting on a closed case file

The case against retrying

A failure from earlier in the semester, read cold with the outcome removed — argue for or against having retried at all.

Due 28 May 2027 · Weight: 40%