Software Engineering in Practice
Practise the daily judgement of software teams. Review a code change, follow up a checkout outage and decide whether a release can ship.
Each module has short lessons with a check question, then a graded simulation. About 4 hours in total, at your own pace.
- Module 1: Review the partial refund change
A colleague's change will issue partial refunds to thousands of festival customers, and all its tests pass because they check the code against itself. Work out the right refunds from the finance policy, review the change, and hold the line on a money bug when the release date is used as pressure.
- Module 2: Review the checkout outage
Customers could not pay for about an hour and a half on a busy Saturday. Rebuild the timeline and impact from the logs, write a blameless review that fixes conditions rather than people, book the review and brief customer care without promising what you cannot keep.
- Module 3: Go or no-go for release 5.4
Release 5.4 must get a new bank feed connector live before an aggregator switches off its old interface on 31 October, but Android crashes, a slow migration and a quarantined test stand in the way. Judge readiness, recommend a plan and roll it out without over-promising.
Skills you will practice
- Applying policy and approval limits
- Briefing colleagues
- Documenting data sources
- Escalating with the facts
- Giving constructive feedback
- Handling service outages
- Managing project issues
- Managing stakeholder expectations
- Persuading with evidence
- Planning a release
- Reviewing code
- Root cause analysis
- Running a post-incident review
- Saying no with reasons
- Weighing trade-offs
- Working with spreadsheets
- Writing a project plan
- Writing tests
- Written communication
Frequently asked questions
What is a Skill Path?
A Skill Path is a short course built around real work. Each module has two or three short lessons, then a simulation where you do the job in a fictional company. Your work in each simulation is graded against a rubric.
How long does a Skill Path take?
Most Skill Paths take three to five hours in total. You can stop at any point and pick up where you left off. There are no deadlines.
What do I get when I finish?
When every simulation in the path is complete and graded, you earn a FinderK credential. It lists the work you did and the skills it shows. You can keep it private or share a link to it, for example on LinkedIn.
How much does a Skill Path cost?
Some Skill Paths are included with FinderK Plus, which has a free trial. Others are sold once at a fixed price and stay yours. You can read the first module's lessons for free before you decide.
Do I need experience?
No. Each path states its level. Beginner paths assume no previous experience in the role, and the lessons explain the ideas you need before each simulation.