Individual submission and integrity policy
Work must be individual
- Every student submits their own code, tests, diagrams, reports, quiz answers and exam responses. Group repositories and group demonstrations are not permitted.
- Discussion of course concepts is welcome; copying another solution, using another student's repository, or submitting someone else's implementation is not.
- Repositories should remain private. Every evaluation includes an individual live code walkthrough and an instructor-selected change or fault scenario.
- Use synthetic data only, simulated payments, and local containers; do not use real customer information or production payment credentials.
Assignment submission format
- Commit source, Dockerfiles, Compose, NGINX config, migrations and tests to the same private repository.
- Tag each stage assignment-1 through assignment-6 (or submit a fixed commit SHA). Keep prior functionality intact.
- Provide README with one-command startup and shutdown, environment examples and API calls.
- Include docs/assignment-N.md: scenario summary, architecture change, test evidence, failure experiment, limitations, and student reflection.
- Record command output or screenshots only as supporting evidence; the grader should still be able to reproduce tests.
Recommended per-assignment rubric
| Dimension | Within each assignment |
|---|---|
| Implementation and required behavior | 40% of the assignment marks |
| Correctness and automated tests | 25% |
| Failure experiment / measured explanation | 20% |
| README, design quality and individual viva | 15% |
Evaluation-class format (three hours)
First 20 minutes: repository/tag and environment verification. The main session is reserved for individual demonstrations, selected automated tests and live fault injection. In Weeks 4, 8 and 12, reserve the final 15-20 minutes for the five-question written quiz, followed by collection and brief feedback. For larger cohorts, use pre-graded tests or parallel assessors while keeping assignments individual.
Reading reflections and scheduled short-answer quiz policy
Before each lecture, students may complete the provided reading/video reflection prompt as ungraded preparation. The full 15-mark quiz component consists of Quiz 1 in Week 4 (Weeks 1-4), Quiz 2 in Week 8 (Weeks 5-8), and Quiz 3 in Week 12 (Weeks 9-12). Each quiz contains exactly five short written-answer questions, one mark each (5 x 1 = 5); total 3 x 5 = 15 marks. Quizzes are individual and closed-response-length: one or two sentences, a small diagram annotation or a concise design decision, not a long essay.