The Case Study and Presentation

The candidate’s first slide read: “Recommendation: pilot with Northstar operators next month.” Below it, in large type: “10 of 12 evidence checks passed.”

The interviewer had read the appendix. “What happened in the other two?”

The other two were stale service records, older versions that should have been withheld, and the system had let them through to the drafting step. A draft built on stale evidence could tell an operator a technician was coming when the visit had been canceled. The candidate knew this. It was in their notes. It just wasn’t on the slide, and the recommendation on the slide didn’t account for it.

A coding task comes with a contract. A deployment case comes with a customer, and nobody says what to build. OpenAI’s interview guide lists take-home projects among possible assessment formats, and FDE candidates report a take-home case that they then walk through and defend live. The work is choosing a workflow, a first release, and the proof that release needs, then presenting it so the hardest question is already answered.

What does the case stage test?

OpenAI’s FDE posting covers the path from discovery and scoping to production rollout, and asks FDEs to sequence work and make trade-offs that protect delivery. A take-home case is a small window onto those same decisions. A strong submission is narrow and complete, and honest about its limits. A broad submission that hides its gaps tends to fall apart at the first follow-up.

Our actual assessment instructions decide the artifact, the format and the tools, along with the time we have. If anything is unclear, we ask the recruiter before starting.

How do we read the brief?

Before deciding what to build, identify five things in the assignment brief.

1. Customer ...