← Articulet System Design, Made Clear Rubrics
Feedback layer Use after every practice answer

Interview rubrics.

Make improvement visible. Score the behavior, not your worth.

Outcome
Every answer gets a clear score, one strongest dimension, one weakest dimension, and one retry target.
Primary rubric

Seven dimensions, four performance levels.

Dimension 1 - Missing 2 - Partial 3 - Interview-ready 4 - Strong signal
Scope clarity Solves a vague prompt directly. Asks questions, but they do not change the design. Narrows use case, constraints, and non-goals. Frames the product promise and avoids scope creep.
Scale reasoning No meaningful numbers. Numbers appear but do not guide choices. Reads, writes, peak, and storage shape are estimated. Numbers lead directly to architecture decisions.
Sketch quality No stable diagram. Diagram has components but unclear paths. Shows baseline, data path, and critical path. Diagram is layered, readable, and easy to evolve.
Bottleneck choice Deep dives randomly. Picks a plausible but low-value area. Chooses the highest pressure area. Explains what breaks first and why.
Trade-offs Names tools without costs. Mentions trade-offs vaguely. States gain, cost, and when the choice is good. Connects trade-offs to user experience and operations.
Communication Scattered or hard to follow. Some structure, but weak transitions. Clear stage transitions and concise language. Guides the room calmly and adapts to signals.
Recovery Bluffs or spirals when challenged. Corrects only after heavy prompting. Names uncertainty and resets cleanly. Turns pushback into a better design branch.
How to use

Score less, retry more.

The rubric is not a gradebook. It is a map for the next repetition.

After a chapter prompt

Score only the 2-3 dimensions that chapter trained.

After a mock interview

Score all seven dimensions and write one retry target.

After a capstone

Aim for no dimension below 3 before calling yourself interview-ready.

Feedback phrases

Write feedback you can act on immediately.

Scope
Your first two questions were useful. The third one did not change the design, so replace it with a scale or latency question.
Scale
You calculated reads and writes, but you did not say what the numbers imply. Add one sentence that justifies cache, queue, CDN, shard, or simplicity.
Sketch
The components are there, but the hot path is not visible. Redraw with one color or label for the critical request path.
Recovery
You noticed the mistake. Now say the reset line earlier, then continue with the smaller baseline.