Rubric for Decomposition Questions

Interviewers score these dimensions on a four-point scale: Strong no hire No hire Hire Strong hire

Whether you're watching a mock interview, reviewing your own recorded answers, or grading a peer, use this rubric to check that you come across as at least a hire on every dimension.

Ambiguity handling

The decomp prompt is underspecified on purpose. This dimension scores whether you can bring definition to a vague problem by identifying the stakeholder and their main pain point, the resources available to build a solution, and the time you have to ship.

Scoring:

• Strong no hire Freezes or goes silent, waits for the interviewer to define the problem, or picks one interpretation at random and runs with it. Treats the vagueness as a mistake instead of the test.
• No hire Asks a few surface-level questions but doesn't use the answers to narrow scope. Names a stakeholder without pinning down the main pain point, ignores the resources and time available, and jumps to a solution before the problem is framed.
• Hire Identifies the main stakeholder and their core pain point, checks what resources are available and how long there is to ship, and confirms these assumptions out loud before designing.
• Strong hire Same as hire but surfaces the constraints that were deliberately left out and reframes the problem in a way that visibly improves the design.

User empathy

This is what drives you to the bottom of the customer's pain point and ultimately to a solution that actually fits. A candidate who keeps pulling the thread because they are vested in the customer's problem will find the real bottleneck.

Scoring:

• Strong no hire Shows no interest in the customer or the "why." Jumps into solutioning.
• No hire Curiosity is shallow. Stops at the first plausible pain point without digging for the real one.
• Hire Probes the stakeholder's situation and asks "why" questions that get past the surface symptom to the underlying bottleneck.
• Strong hire Visibly energized by the problem and keeps digging until the real pain point is exposed. The interviewer learns something about their own problem from the candidate's questions.

Outcome orientation

This scores whether you are primarily focused on the customer's success or simply building something clever. Strong candidates tie every design choice back to the business outcome and can state plainly what success looks like for the stakeholder.

Scoring:

• Strong no hire Optimizes for technical cleverness and can't state what success looks like for the customer. Builds the interesting part regardless of whether it moves the needle.
• No hire Mentions the outcome but design decisions aren't tied to it. Drifts toward the fun engineering problem, and success criteria stay vague.
• Hire States the concrete business outcome and what success looks like, and keeps design choices anchored to it throughout.
• Strong hire Justifies every decision by customer impact and openly trades engineering elegance for value delivered. Would drop a clever approach the moment it stops serving the outcome.

Scrappy

This scores whether you can devise something deliverable in a short time span with maximum effectiveness. It’s about knowing what can realistically ship in the window, carving out the highest-value slice, and being explicit about what you are deferring and why.

Scoring:

• Strong no hire Designs a grand, production-grade system with no sense of what's shippable, or gets stuck trying to make it perfect. Over-engineers from the start.
• No hire Scopes an MVP in name only, one still too large to deliver in the window. Can't cleanly separate must-have from nice-to-have.
• Hire Carves out a realistic first slice that delivers value fast, and can name what's deferred and why, including intentional tech debt.
• Strong hire Ruthlessly prioritizes the highest-value slice, sequences the follow-ups by impact and blockers, and shows sharp judgment on what to build now versus later given the constraints.

Technical depth

Interviewers say the decomp interview is the best place to see a candidate's "spikes," far better than any technical quiz. This dimension scores whether you can go deep in at least one area in your design.

Depth usually gets tested through the follow-up questions, when the interviewer picks one part of your design and pushes on how it actually works.

Scoring:

• Strong no hire Stays high-level everywhere and can't go deep in any area. Hand-waves when pushed on how something actually works.
• No hire Some depth, but shallow across the board. Struggles to defend design choices under follow-up and leans on buzzwords over reasoning.
• Hire Goes deep in at least one area, and holds up when the interviewer probes, defending and adjusting the design under pressure.
• Strong hire Same as hire, and the depth is strong enough to raise the bar for the team, teaching the interviewer something or handling scrutiny most candidates couldn't..

Collaboration

This dimension scores whether you use your interviewer as a thought partner: building on their input, picking up their cues, and treating the session as a joint effort. Interviewers are assessing if you are easy to work with.

Scoring:

• Strong no hire Treats the interviewer as an audience or an examiner. Talks over them, misses hints, or goes quiet and works alone.
• No hire Engages, but only one way. Answers questions without building on what the interviewer offers or using them to move faster.
• Hire Works with the interviewer as a partner, picks up on their cues, and folds their input into a shared understanding of the problem.
• Strong hire Drives a real two-way exchange, pulls the right detail out of the colleague at the right moment, and leaves the interviewer feeling like they solved it together.