61 questions you should expect, with answers. Every question here is one an audience actually asks during Transformers from First Principles (Lecture 01, 22 slides). They're grouped by topic rather than by slide, so you can find one fast mid-Q&A — the slide reference sits under each answer if you want to jump back to the visual.
Companion to: the deck and the takeaway repo
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Use this to generate a completed requirements document from your template plus your raw inputs (meeting transcripts, scoping notes, tickets, chat threads, emails). Attach or paste the template and all source material, then paste the prompt below.
Tips for best results
Deck: mcp-factory-intro-deck.html · 14 slides · ~12 minutes at a steady pace (plus Q&A).
How to use this: one entry per slide, in order. The Cue line is a rough timing/intent marker; the paragraph beneath it is what to say — paraphrase it, don't read it. Advance with the arrow keys (or number keys 1–9 to jump). Press O in the deck for the slide overview, F for fullscreen.
Delivering & Operating: Conway's Law, Migration Steps & Built-Is-Not-Ready · the finale
You've named a constraint, chosen a representation, placed every operation on the consistency spectrum, and bounded blast radius. The system still has to be built, shipped, and run — inside an organisation that doesn't care about your architecture. This finale asks you to deliver one, and then to name the single instinct that has run through the whole course. The grade is in the reasoning — in a delivery sized to bound drift and a readiness made of evidence, not in a flawless launch.
Time: ~60–75 min · Due: before the wrap session · Submit: post your write-up in the cohort channel.
Scaling & Surviving: Partition Keys, Blast Radius & Designed Degradation · resilience
Module 3 assumed a handful of replicas. Past one node, something is always failing — and the survivors aren't the ones with more capacity, they're the ones that decided how they'd fail in advance. This take-home asks you to audit a system you run for partitioning, resilience, and blast radius, and to write down its degradation before the spike. The grade is in a partition key that bounds failure as well as load.
Time: ~45–60 min · Due: before Module 5 · Submit: post your write-up in the cohort channel.
Distributed State & Consistency: Placing Each Operation on the Spectrum · the spectrum
On one machine you chose a representation. Across many, you lose the luxury of having the truth and the speed at once. This take-home asks you to take a real application and place its operations on the consistency spectrum — each at the weakest guarantee it can correctly tolerate, and not a rung stronger. The grade is in showing that different operations need different rungs, and naming what each one costs.
Time: ~45–60 min · Due: before Module 4 · Submit: post your write-up in the cohort channel.