06. Module 15 Review — Capstone Integration Checkpoint

Focus: system design judgment, integration quality, evaluation discipline, and readiness for principle-driven polish.

Review loop

1. Re-read 01_weekly_plan.md and compare planned scope versus actual scope.
2. Skim 02_explainer.md, especially Chapters 1, 4, and 6.
3. Use 04_daily_recall.md to answer the prompts without notes.
4. Open 05_hands_on_lab.md and mark what is done, rough, or missing.

Conceptual checkpoint

Answer these in writing or aloud: 1. What system-level failure did you underestimate most? 2. Why is your chosen architecture simpler than the tempting alternative? 3. Which contract between components is still too weak? 4. Which metric currently gives you false confidence? 5. What would break first at 10x traffic or 10x data volume? 6. What did this module teach you about cost versus latency trade-offs?

Applied checkpoint

1. Walk through one real user request from input to final output.
2. Show the exact place where you log latency and cost.
3. Show one failing case from the eval suite.
4. Show the fallback behavior for one broken dependency.
5. Show the README section that explains architecture decisions.

Self-evaluation

Section	Score	/
Conceptual clarity	__	10
Applied readiness	__	10
Communication quality	__	10
Total	__	30

Reflection

• What did you build that genuinely feels reusable in future projects?
• Where did you over-engineer?
• Where did you under-instrument?
• What would a skeptical staff engineer challenge first?
• Which lesson deserves to become a principle next week?

Foundation-gap audit

Module 16 quietly assumes four things. Check them honestly:

Assumption for Module 16	Can you defend it today?	Evidence
Full system building experience	Yes / No	End-to-end MVP exists
Integration challenges felt directly	Yes / No	Failure notes, contract fixes
Cost and latency trade-offs observed	Yes / No	Budget, metrics, logs
Deployment basics understood	Yes / No	Container, runbook, or deploy path

Bridge forward

Next module — 20_engineering_leadership_judgment — formalizes the engineering judgment you developed here into principles: how to make technical decisions, manage complexity, and lead AI teams.

Completion gate

• [ ] Weekly plan completed.
• [ ] Assignment deliverables mostly complete.
• [ ] Foundation-gap audit answered honestly.
• [ ] Ready to turn project experience into reusable principles.