shipping code vs knowing code: a 5-minute glossary

a glossary is a list of words you already know, in an order you can re-read in 5 minutes. this is that list. 14 terms. 1 worked example each. the order is: the most-frequently-confused terms first, the easiest-to-sound-smart-with terms last.

if you are a dreamclerk applicant, the rubric does not score jargon. the rubric scores whether you can use these 14 terms in a sentence without sounding like you read a blog post. if you are not, this is still a list of 14 things you can re-read in 5 minutes on the bus to an interview.

> how to read this: each entry has a one-sentence definition, a one-sentence worked example, and a one-sentence "what it sounds like when you don't know it." skip the worked example if you are pressed for time. read it if you want the test to come out right.

1. shipping code

> definition: the act of putting code into a place where other people can use it, after a review round.

> example: "i shipped the new search endpoint to staging on tuesday, ran the load test on wednesday, and pushed to production on thursday after the on-call signoff."

> sounds like you don't know it: "i finished the project." (finished for whom? reviewed by whom? signed off by whom? shipped to where?)

1. pr (pull request)

> definition: a proposal to merge one branch into another, with a description, a diff, and a review thread.

> example: "the pr is 142 lines across 4 files, it closes issue 412, and it has two maintainer approvals and one request-changes."

> sounds like you don't know it: "i made a pull request" (yes, but to merge what into what, and what is the review status?)

1. review round

> definition: the conversation between the author and one or more reviewers about whether the pr should be merged.

> example: "the first review round was 3 comments, all nits. i addressed them in 2 follow-up commits. the second review round was a request-changes on the index choice. i switched to a btree and re-requested review."

> sounds like you don't know it: "they reviewed it" (who reviewed it, what did they say, what did you do about it, how many rounds did it take?)

1. code review

> definition: the act of reading someone else's pr, looking for correctness, clarity, and consequence, and writing a review.

> example: "i reviewed pr 219 from a peer. i left 4 comments: 2 on a missing test for the unhappy path, 1 on a variable name that didn't match the rest of the file, and 1 on a place where the function should have returned an error instead of logging and continuing."

> sounds like you don't know it: "i helped with the code review" (helped how? what did you catch? what did the author change as a result?)

1. incident

> definition: an unplanned event that degraded or could have degraded a production system.

> example: "the incident was a 14-minute p99 latency spike on the search endpoint, starting at 02:14 utc, traced to a single shard that had a hot key. the on-call rolled back, the postmortem was on the 27th, and the runbook now has a new section on hot-key detection."

> sounds like you don't know it: "there was an outage" (outage is a category; incident is the unit. an outage is an incident. a 200ms latency spike is also an incident. the term is the unit.)

1. postmortem

> definition: a blameless, time-boxed write-up of an incident, with a timeline, a root cause, and a follow-up list.

> example: "the postmortem has 5 sections: timeline, contributing factors, root cause, what went well, and follow-ups. we have 3 follow-ups, all assigned, all dated."

> sounds like you don't know it: "we did a retrospective" (retrospective is a sprint ceremony. postmortem is a specific document. they are not the same.)

1. rubric

> definition: a scoring guide with named dimensions and named levels, used to make a judgment more consistent across reviewers.

> example: "the rubric has 4 dimensions, each scored 1–4, and the cutoff is 11 with no dimension below 2. the inter-rater reliability on cohort 2 was 0.81."

> sounds like you don't know it: "we had a checklist" (checklist is binary. rubric is graded. if you mean checklist, say checklist.)

1. pushback round

> definition: a structured disagreement, where one party challenges a decision and the other party defends, with a time limit and a rubric.

> example: "the pushback round was 2 minutes. the AI disagreed with my choice of a hash index. i defended with the access-pattern data. the AI pushed back harder on the cold-start case. i conceded the cold-start case and proposed a hybrid."

> sounds like you don't know it: "we had a discussion" (discussion is a meeting. pushback round is a specific protocol with a rubric and a time limit.)

1. sprint

> definition: a fixed-length, time-boxed unit of work, usually 1–2 weeks, with a defined scope and a defined outcome.

> example: "sprint 4 was 5 tickets, scoped on monday, reviewed on thursday, merged by friday. the demo was the search-endpoint pr plus 4 smaller prs. the retro was 3 follow-ups, all about the test-suite runtime."

> sounds like you don't know it: "we worked on the project" (project is the noun. sprint is the unit. if you mean 1–2 weeks of work, say sprint.)

1. capstone

> definition: the final, integrative piece of work in a sequence, intended to demonstrate command of the whole sequence.

> example: "the capstone is a 4-sprint project, owned end-to-end, with a real pr flow, a real review round, a real postmortem, and a signed cert at the end."

> sounds like you don't know it: "the final project" (project is a vague word. capstone is a specific role: the integrative piece at the end of a sequence.)

1. tech lead

> definition: the engineer who owns the technical direction of a project or a sprint, makes the final call on architecture, and runs the review rounds.

> example: "my sprint-1 tech lead is raghav, ex-flipkart, 8 years on platform. he ran my first review round, signed off on my second, and gave me the 4-followups list for the capstone."

> sounds like you don't know it: "my manager" (manager is the org chart. tech lead is the function. they may be the same person. they may not.)

1. ai tech lead

> definition: a language-model-based reviewer that scores prs on a rubric, writes line-level feedback, and either requests changes or merges.

> example: "the AI tech lead scored my pr 3.7/4 on specificity, caught the missing test for the unhappy path, and requested changes. i addressed the changes and re-requested review. the AI merged on the second pass."

> sounds like you don't know it: "the AI graded my code" (grading is a number. reviewing is a conversation. the AI tech lead is a reviewer, not a grader.)

1. cert (certified work record)

> definition: a signed, public, verifiable json of every pr you shipped, every review you got, every incident you resolved, and every rubric score you earned.

> example: "the cert is at dreamclerk.com/verify/dc-2026-q3-8f4a-9c2b. it has 12 prs, 8 review rounds, 1 postmortem, and a final rubric score of 14/16. recruiters verify the signature in 1 click."

> sounds like you don't know it: "i got a certificate" (certificate is paper. cert is a signed json. the difference is the verifier.)

1. cohort

> definition: a fixed, time-bounded group of interns who start, sprint, and certify together.

> example: "i was in cohort 1, march 2025, 212 interns, 67 of us certified. cohort 2 had 287, 96 certified. cohort 3 starts in september 2026."

> sounds like you don't know it: "my batch" (batch is a manufacturing term. cohort is the term in education and in cohort studies. say cohort.)

> if you made it to the end of this glossary, the test is this: pick any 3 terms, in any order, and explain them to a 2nd-year cs student who has not seen them. if you can do it in 90 seconds per term, you have command of the vocabulary. if you cannot, you have the vocabulary. the gap between having and commanding is the rubric.

— dreamclerk team, chennai, june 2026