Technical collaboration
On this page 8 topics
Overview
Topics
- Reviews
- constructive feedback
- mentoring junior engineers
Learn first
2 h of practice (estimate)
Learning outcomes
- Review code for correctness, design, and operability, with comments that teach.
- Give and receive feedback on designs constructively.
- Mentor a junior engineer through pairing and well-scoped tasks.
- Disagree and commit, escalating only when needed.
Lessons
Lab and exercises
Lab
MID-066-LAB1 · Mentor and review
Outcomes: 1–4 · Time: ~2 h
- Review two Junior-level capstone pull requests with labeled, teaching comments.
- Pair with a Junior learner on one fix; let them drive.
- Collect feedback from the mentee on how helpful the pairing was.
- Write a short note on one disagreement you handled and how it was resolved.
Acceptance: reviews scored on usefulness; mentee feedback collected.
Exercises (assessment: review-quality rubric; five exercises)
| ID | Outcome | Task |
|---|---|---|
| MID-066-EX01 | 1 | Review a 60-line diff with a hidden race condition and a missing timeout; write labeled comments. |
| MID-066-EX02 | 2 | Rewrite five harsh or vague review comments so they are specific, kind, and actionable. |
| MID-066-EX03 | 2 | Prepare a design review of a one-page design: list your ten questions and what feedback the author should request. |
| MID-066-EX04 | 3 | Write a well-scoped task brief for a junior to add input validation to one endpoint. |
| MID-066-EX05 | 4 | Two engineers disagree on cache versus read replica. Write a neutral summary for the decider. |
Show solutions
- EX01
blocking:shared mutable state without synchronization, with a failing test idea;blocking:call without timeout (MID-023);question:what if the list is empty; one praise. - EX02 For example "bad naming" becomes "
datahides what it holds;pendingOrderswould say it. suggestion:". - EX03 Questions on problem, constraints, alternatives, failure modes, load, rollout, rollback, observability, security, cost; the author asks for feedback on risks and alternatives.
- EX04 Goal, links to patterns, acceptance (tests for valid and invalid input), one hint, stuck limit of 30 minutes, review time.
- EX05 Context, options with trade-offs (freshness, complexity, cost), measurements to take, recommendation if any, decision date.
Quiz
Outcomes: O1 reviewing code · O2 feedback and design reviews · O3 mentoring · O4 disagree and commit.
A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.
Practical part
Five exercises MID-066-EX01 to EX05 plus the lab. Pass: at least four exercises correct and reviews scoring at least "useful" on the rubric with mentee feedback collected.
Common mistakes
Rewriting the author's code in comments; approving without reading tests.
Assessment
Review-quality rubric.
Career relevance
Mentorship (SRC-020) and technical influence at every senior level.