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Extension Module X5 — Interview Prep: Whiteboarding & Systems Design for AI Roles

Requires: 40 — Hardening, Postmortem, "What's Next" Teaches: whiteboarding · systems-design · paper-reading · storytelling Jump to any chapter from the phase reference index.

Chapter map

🇪🇸 Módulo de preparación para entrevistas en laboratorios de IA: whiteboard ML, systems design para LLMs, lectura rápida de papers, drills de código, behavioral STAR y prep específico por empresa. Convierte el viaje del lynx-cortex en respuestas listas para usar.

Status

  • Track: Extension (parallel to core 40-phase curriculum)
  • Authorization: Addendum A15 (extension tracks authorized)
  • Prerequisites: No hard prereqs — drills cross-link to specific phases.
  • Scope guard: Every exercise references the §A13 grammar-tutor artifacts; no novel scope.
  • Hardware bar: Pen + whiteboard + 60 minutes per drill. Asciinema-recordable.

Why this module exists

The core 40-phase curriculum makes you able to do the work. This module makes you able to talk about doing the work under interview conditions: 60 minutes, hostile follow-ups, a hiring bar tuned for "depth signal".

Most public interview guides are generic. This one anchors every exercise to a PHASE_NN_REPORT.md you already have (or will have) — so your answers carry the weight of receipts, not vibes.

The three signals AI labs actually grade on:

  1. Depth. Can you go three levels deep without flinching? (theory/01 follow-up trees.)
  2. Implementation. Can you write attention from scratch in 20 minutes? (theory/04 drills.)
  3. Systems intuition. Can you do capacity math on a napkin? (theory/02 prompts.)

Module map

File Topic
theory/00-interview-landscape-2026.md The 2026 AI-lab interview loop: phone screen, ML-systems, coding, paper read, design, behavioral
theory/01-whiteboard-ml-questions.md 25 classic ML whiteboard questions with 3-paragraph answers + 3-level follow-up trees
theory/02-systems-design-for-llms.md 5 LLM systems-design prompts with capacity math, failure modes, cost discipline
theory/03-paper-read-drill.md How to read a paper in 20 minutes: Attention, CLIP, DPO, Chinchilla
theory/04-coding-drills.md 12 coding exercises (attention, BPE, LoRA, DPO loss, RoPE, ...) with 30-min budgets
theory/05-behavioral-and-storytelling.md STAR template + 10 anecdotes pre-filled from the lynx-cortex journey
theory/06-company-specific-prep.md Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepMind, Brain, xAI, Cohere/Mistral signals
lab/00-mock-interview-checklist.md 60-minute self-interview drill, 5 × 12-minute questions, asciinema-recordable
lab/01-paper-pitch-cards.md 17 elevator-pitch cards: title

Every drill points to the phase that prepared the learner for it. A non-exhaustive map:

  • Attention whiteboard / coding drill → Phase 15
  • KV-cache systems prompt → Phase 22
  • LoRA coding drill → Phase 28
  • DPO loss coding drill → X3 Module
  • Continuous batcher drill → Phase 33
  • Behavioral "complex system" → the 41-phase journey itself
  • Behavioral "hard debug" → Phase 19 — Training Dynamics
  • Behavioral "tradeoff" → §A13 scope pivot (LYNX_CORTEX_ADDENDUM.md)

Definition of Done

  • All 25 whiteboard questions rehearsed aloud at least once; depth-tree traversal verified.
  • All 12 coding drills solved within their 30-minute budgets at least once.
  • All 17 paper-pitch cards memorized to the 3-numbers-to-remember level.
  • All 5 systems-design prompts run end-to-end with capacity math on paper.
  • One full asciinema recording of the lab/00 mock interview.
  • All 10 STAR anecdotes pre-written and timed to ≤90 seconds each.

Bilingual policy

Each file opens with a 1-2 line > 🇪🇸 summary. Body is English-only per project policy.

Further reading

Optional — enrichment, not required to pass the phase.