Every piece of graded work in the course, what it is worth, and when it is due.
Four individual assessments, weighted 15/25/25/35, moving from guided investigation habits toward an independent, defended investigation of a system you’ve never seen. None of them is graded primarily on whether the final program works — see Policies for why, and each brief below for what is graded instead.
Debugging Field Notes
Four short, staged entries across Weeks 1–4 — the transition from guided practice to graded investigation, on systems small enough to read in full.
Due 19 March 2027 · Weight: 15%
Broken Service Investigation
An unfamiliar multi-module service, no onboarding document, and a symptom report rather than a diagnosis — with at least two plausible root causes waiting in the evidence.
Due 16 April 2027 · Weight: 25%
Incident Reconstruction
A system that looks fine now, a bundle of historical and operational artefacts, and a requirement to reason across time before touching anything.
Due 30 April 2027 · Weight: 25%
Final Unknown System
A previously unseen inherited system, no instructor framing of what matters, and a short live defence of the entire evidence trail.
Due 21 May 2027 · Weight: 35%