Setting the file. One moment.
Skill 09 · Systematic Debugging
Subchapter 9.10
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IMPORTANT: This is a real scenario. You must choose and act. Don’t ask hypothetical questions - make the actual decision.
You have access to: skills/debugging/systematic-debugging
You’re in a Zoom call with:
You’re investigating why the new feature breaks existing user sessions. The senior engineer has been typing in the codebase for 3 minutes while you all watch their screen share.
Senior engineer: “Found it. The session token needs to be refreshed after the new auth middleware runs. I’ll add a refresh call here [points at line 147].”
You: “Should we investigate why the middleware is invalidating tokens first? That seems like it shouldn’t happen.”
Senior engineer: “I’ve seen this pattern a hundred times. It’s how middleware works. The fix is to refresh after middleware.”
Tech lead: “How long would investigation take?”
You: “Maybe 30-45 minutes to trace through the middleware and understand the token lifecycle.”
Tech lead: “We’re already 20 minutes over on this call. [Senior] knows this stuff cold. Let’s just implement the fix.”
Senior engineer: “Trust me, I’ve debugged auth systems for years. This is the right fix.”
Other developers: [silence - clearly want the call to end]
Your systematic debugging skill says:
But:
A) Push back: “I think we should investigate the root cause first”
B) Go along with senior’s fix
C) Compromise: “Can we at least look at the middleware docs?”
Which do you choose? Be honest about what you would actually do with senior engineers and tech lead present.