#Self-Assessment and Gap Triage
Run this twice: at the start of the sprint and after the mock loop. The delta tells you whether the sprint worked; the absolute scores tell you what to do with your last day.
#The scorecard
Score 1–5. Be harsh. A generous self-assessment costs you the job; a harsh one costs you an afternoon.
#Platform depth
| Topic | Can explain at L1 (exec) | L2 (director) | L3 (engineer) | L4 (internals) | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spark execution model | |||||
| Catalyst / AQE | |||||
| Joins and skew | |||||
| Memory, spill, OOM | |||||
| Photon | |||||
| Delta transaction log / ACID | |||||
| Data layout (clustering, partitioning) | |||||
| Deletion vectors / MERGE | |||||
| Structured Streaming | |||||
| Unity Catalog model | |||||
| Fine-grained access / ABAC | |||||
| Workspace / metastore topology | |||||
| Ingestion and declarative pipelines | |||||
| Security and networking | |||||
| GenAI / agent governance | |||||
| Competitive positioning | |||||
| Cost model and FinOps | |||||
| 2026 product currency |
Rule: anything scoring below 3 at L3 is a gap that will show under pushback. Anything below 3 at L1 is a gap that will show with an executive. Both matter; the L1 gaps are faster to fix.
#Interview performance
| Competency | Score | Evidence from the mock |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery before designing | ||
| Naming trade-offs explicitly | ||
| Depth on demand | ||
| Diagnostic method (evidence before fix) | ||
| Altitude range (exec ↔ internals) | ||
| Handling interruption | ||
| Handling being wrong | ||
| Objection handling | ||
| STAR stories with numbers | ||
| Time management | ||
| Questions asked of them |
#Triage rules
With limited time left, fix in this order:
- Bluffing. Anywhere in the mock you pretended to know something. This is the only disqualifying category — fix it by rehearsing the "I don't know, here's how I'd reason about it" move until it is comfortable rather than shameful.
- Discovery. If you designed before asking in any scenario, drill five scenario openings — just the first three minutes, nothing else.
- The presentation. In a field loop this carries the most weight. Below 4 means rehearse, not read.
- The hands-on diagnostic. Your JD names it explicitly. Below 4, re-drill the six scenarios in
../01-platform/06-performance-and-cost.md§5. - Numbers in STAR stories. Fast to fix, disproportionately noticed.
- L1 translations. Also fast — one pass through the translation table in
../02-drills/06-executive-business-case.md§1. - Everything else. Knowledge gaps at L4 on topics you'll rarely be pushed to. Lowest priority, despite feeling like the most urgent.
Note the inversion: the things that feel most urgent (obscure technical gaps) are last, and the things that feel least like studying (rehearsing discovery, practising "I don't know") are first. That is not an accident — it is where the marginal scoring is.
#Readiness gate
You are ready when all of these are true:
- You can draw all ten Tier-1 diagrams in four minutes each, from memory.
- You can run any of the six diagnostic scenarios aloud without notes.
- Your presentation lands in 30 minutes with six interruptions.
- You have six STAR-L stories, each three minutes, each with a number.
- You can answer "when would you not use Databricks?" with three genuine cases.
- You can say what changed on the platform in the last six months and why it matters architecturally — without reciting a launch list.
- You have five questions to ask them that show you understand the job.
- You have said "I don't know" out loud, in practice, without flinching.
If six of eight are true, you are in good shape. Interviews are not passed by knowing everything; they are passed by being obviously credible and obviously honest. Chasing the last two boxes on the final evening usually costs more in sleep than it returns in performance.