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Assessment plan

Formative (each module)

  • Short knowledge check (self-graded; answers in the module).
  • Short engineering assignment (one page or a small patch).
  • Lab completion: expected observations present.

A transcript without reasoning does not pass. You pass a module when you can do all of the following for its material, in this order:

Move You can
Explain State the security invariant. Identify the trust boundary.
Predict Predict expected evidence: what appears, what does not, and why.
Diagnose Diagnose a failure from telemetry.
Design Propose prevention and detection.
Defend Explain containment. Explain residual risk.

That is Explain → Predict → Diagnose → Design → Defend. Module exit checklists instantiate this bar; they do not replace it. Lab output (screenshots or command transcripts of local services) is necessary evidence, not a substitute for the explanations.

Runtime labs use the predict → run → compare loop in How defenders think. Design and writing labs use the same cycle on findings, not telemetry. Do not invent extra labs.

Summative

The capstone rubric (100 points). Pass at 80+ with all acceptance checkboxes.

Integrity

  • Do not submit production logs or real credentials.
  • Do not “pass” by disabling assert_local in simulate.py.
  • Using an LLM to edit prose is fine; using it to skip labs is not. If an agent writes your incident report, you must still be able to defend the timeline live.

Optional oral

Fifteen minutes: explain DET-003 mapping, why approval is in the API, and one residual risk after LAB_MODE=false.