Plan Mode: Watching a Candidate Think

When AI is in the room the build takes minutes, so the code stops being the interesting part. Here’s how to turn a vague ticket into a plan the candidate has to defend.

A walkthrough for whoever has to run the round, not just design it. It covers what to hand the candidate, a ticket with real unknowns rather than a packaged puzzle, and what to watch for: a weaker candidate asks the assistant to fix the bug straight away, a stronger one uses it to explore the system and test a hypothesis first. The plan then becomes the thing you question, which is where trade-offs and what is safe to ship actually surface.