The Missing Manual for Staff Engineers.
Most senior engineers fail Staff interviews for one reason: they solve the problem — but don't demonstrate Staff-level signal. StaffSignal makes evaluation criteria explicit.
Built for engineers targeting L6–L7 at MAANG. Not for entry-level prep.
Staff Playbooks
Deep, opinionated guides to what evaluators actually look for. Not blog posts — operating manuals.
Distributed Caching
- •L5 vs L6 expectation breakdown
- •When caching is necessary vs premature
- •Who owns correctness when cache and DB diverge?
- •Failure modes evaluators specifically look for
Message Queues & Event-Driven Systems
- •Throughput vs reliability tradeoffs
- •Delivery guarantees explained without hand-waving
- •The "exactly once" myth and what to say instead
- •What Staff candidates articulate that seniors don't
Rate Limiting & Traffic Control
- •Algorithm comparisons (token bucket vs leaky bucket vs sliding window)
- •Multi-region coordination implications
- •Abuse handling vs product constraint tension
- •When you're over-designing and how evaluators spot it
What Changes Between Senior and Staff?
Staff interviews are not about better diagrams. They're about broader accountability.
| Dimension | Senior (L5) | Staff (L6) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Owns a component or service | Owns a cross-team technical surface |
| Tradeoffs | Evaluates local options | Frames org-level impact and cost |
| Risk | Identifies and manages risk | Anticipates failure modes before they're raised |
| Design communication | Explains what they built | Frames the problem, aligns stakeholders, then builds |
| Ownership signal | "I implemented X" | "I identified the gap, proposed the approach, and drove adoption" |
Every StaffSignal playbook includes L5 vs L6 contrast tables for the specific topic. This is the level calibration that other platforms skip.
Built for
- ✓Engineers targeting Staff (L6) or Senior Staff (L7) roles
- ✓Engineers who've been told "not enough scope" or "didn't demonstrate ownership" in debrief
- ✓Senior engineers (L5) who want to understand what the next level actually requires
- ✓Engineers who can already design systems but need evaluation calibration
Not for
- ✗Entry-level interview prep
- ✗LeetCode speed grinding
- ✗Template memorization ("just draw the boxes")
- ✗Anyone looking for a generic "get hired at Big Tech" course
Why This Exists
Built by an engineer who has evaluated design rounds, sat in debrief rooms, and watched strong candidates fail for non-obvious reasons. StaffSignal exists because the criteria that determine Staff-level hiring decisions are real, consistent, and documentable — but almost never written down.
Start with the playbooks.
Read one before your next interview. The evaluation criteria don't change — but your awareness of them will.