Project Behavioral Prep Grid

Question 1

AI Assist: Leadership / Influence

Answer 1

• S: Working at start-up: owning the front-end
• S: When I came into the company code-base was a mess (SOLID)
• T: Exploring code-base and reported this to the founder
• A: Research, designed and implemented new architecture
• R: Leading to 30% reduction on API calls for typical user session
• R: SOLID, extensibility and scalability

Question 2

AI Assist: Teamwork

Answer 2

• S: Importance of teamwork in small scale startup environment
• S: Not forced to constantly check in when you each own a separate component compared to team owning a component (basically different)
• T: Brought a new member on board to do some backend work on creating and adapting some APIs (decoupling some components), but he didn’t know how everything was integrated
• A: Worked closely with him to define the spec and context for front-end
• A: There was some compat challenges so scheduled Discord call with him to sort them out
• R: Lead to ship the new feature bug-free

Question 3

AI Assist: Success

Answer 3

• S: Being able to learn and be adaptable
• S: Prev internship guidence from senior dev
• T: Pivot the app direction: reworking front-end / backend
• T: Backend dev unavailable
• A: Responsibiltiy of redesigning system and learning backend dev
• A: Deep dive into learning materials and execute
• R: Result is the pivot was successful
• R: Also managed to decouple some of the code and SOLID, can already see more extensbile and bug free.

Question 4

AI Assist: Mistakes / failures

Answer 4

• S: Let go of prev backend dev because not following best practices
• S: Multiple API end-points for different CRUD operations with inconsistent parameters
• T: Tasked with creating some new APIs
• A: Followed his example, learn through reverse engineering. Mistake for first API
• A: Did some research on best practices and realised problem -> mention to Founder
• R: Ended up redesigning the 10 APIs to simplify endpoints and make more concrete / fail safe.
• R: Result: Fulls stack interactions more streamlined and bug free

Question 5

AI Assist: Challenges

Answer 5

• S: Love + Challenge: Ability to wear multiple hats / exp in different roles multiple sides of the business
• S: Main backend developer let go / temp contract
• T: Full stack dev, create new APIs for features
• A: Made a few mistakes initially
• A: Did a learning deep-dive, techical videos and system design articles
• R: Simplify and migrate 10 APIs to new direction for app, incl dev 3 from scratch
• R: Shipping features accross full stack, can now itterate and dev much faster.

Question 6

AI Assist: Learning from role

Answer 6

• S: Neccessity to adapt and learn fast, to do different things I have never done before.
• S: More so than any of my other roles. Enjoy this -> Palantir convo.
• T: Many different instances (can go into) such as redesigning app architecture, becoming backend dev and start-up problems
• A: Each situation focused on reverse engineering existing solutions in the app and doing a learning deep-dive online into specific area. (Can go into detail)
• R: Learned is being able to adapt, learn and excell in unknown situations.

Question 7

AI Assist: Exit story

Answer 7

• Love the ability to have a large impact and influence direction of end-product.
• Few things don’t like about startup environment: not following best engineering practices, and limited internal network of brilliant people
• Right now focused on being able to develop into an amazing engineer, so I can deliver the best impact possible throughout career
• Palantir seems like the perfect place for this to develop in multiple dimensions FDSE (Jack flexibility) and be able to actually find meaning through work Gotham: saving lives, western values. AIP western leading AI race Mention CEO podcasts
• Read zero-to-one book about the architecture of Palantir
• Think this is an amazing place to acomplish these goals.

Question 8

AMCHAM Mistake story

Answer 8

Nugget: Story about when I was 16 developed app for chamber of commerce.
- ST: IB project. Diff to peers. Had self-taught Flutter the prev summer
- A: Reached out through network to develop app at AMCHAM (they needed one)
- A: During Christmas break, immersed in development, morning to evening
- R: Developed mobile app, admin portal website, SA payment features. Met all their requirements.
- R: They didn’t end up using it, off the shelf sultion
- Mistake: didn’t explore hidden ways to unlock value, just did what they asked. Unique opportunity with sharing and monitising their events with low-income audience, however afterthought, did dev.
- Learning: constantly look out for ways to create hidden value. This is also what peter thiel talks about.