Leveling Signals: Senior vs Staff

The same loop decides two things: whether you are hired and at what level, and the second is decided by a small set of signals interviewers are trained to listen for. Senior is scope you own and execute; staff is scope you define, across teams, under ambiguity, with the organization's defaults changed behind you. The signals are audible in every round: how you frame a design prompt, which failure modes you name unprompted, whose problem an incident was, what changed after it, and what you chose not to do. This page lists the signals per round, the stories each level needs, and the down-leveling traps.