This is exactly the data we fed into the Lesson 1 prompts — so you can repeat the run one to one and check your table against ours. All names, companies and dates are made up: there are no real people here, so you can practice anywhere.
A made-up EdTech product company. The requirements are deliberately written without discriminatory criteria — this is a control example.
Position: Middle Python Developer. Company: EdTech product platform for online courses (~120 employees, ~180k monthly active learners), migrating from a monolith to microservices. Format: remote (EU) or hybrid (Lisbon). Responsibilities: developing backend services in Python (Django/FastAPI); taking part in the move to a microservice architecture; automated tests (pytest), code review; optimizing PostgreSQL queries; taking part in sprint planning. Requirements: 2+ years of commercial Python experience; solid knowledge of Django or FastAPI; experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL), understanding of indexes and query optimization; Git, understanding of CI/CD; basic Docker; English B1 or higher. Nice to have: Celery/RabbitMQ, Kubernetes, experience in EdTech/high-load B2C. Salary range: 2,200–3,200 USD net.
The candidates are deliberately different: one strong with verifiable facts, one with smooth text and not a single number, one with a "10x" claim and no baseline for comparison, one with formal experience in the wrong role, and one strong but from a different stack.
=== Candidate-009 === Middle Python Developer, Poland, remote About me: backend developer, 4+ years of commercial Python experience. Latest team — a marketplace with ~90k daily active users. Experience: — Middle Python Developer, product company (marketplace, ~200 employees), 03.2023 – present. Product search and filtering service on FastAPI: extracted it from the monolith, handles ~1.2k requests/min at peak. Catalog: the category page used to load in 2.4 s; after a composite index (category_id, created_at) and removing N+1 — 180 ms on the same data. Celery + RabbitMQ queues for importing price lists (up to 400k items overnight). Test coverage of my service from 34% to 71% (pytest), runs in GitLab CI on every MR. — Python Developer (Junior → Middle), outsourcing (~60 employees), 02.2022 – 02.2023. Django backend for internal CRMs of two clients. REST API on DRF, integrations with payment providers. Analyzed slow PostgreSQL queries with EXPLAIN ANALYZE. Education: public technical university, applied mathematics, bachelor's, 2017–2021. Skills: Python, Django, DRF, FastAPI, PostgreSQL (indexes, EXPLAIN ANALYZE), Redis, Celery, RabbitMQ, Docker, GitLab CI, pytest, Git. English — B2.
Candidate-009 — a clean, strong profile: facts are described as actions, with metrics — the baseline
=== Candidate-002 === Middle Python Developer About me: an experienced and results-driven Python developer with a passion for quality code and innovative solutions. I constantly improve my skills and keep up with the latest technologies. A results-oriented team player. Experience: — Python Developer, IT company, 2022 – present. Successfully developed and implemented high-quality software solutions. Effectively collaborated with cross-functional teams. Continuously optimized application performance and improved the architecture. Ensured a high level of code quality. Participated in code review and mentoring junior colleagues. — Python Developer (Junior→Middle), previous employer, 2020 – 2022. Developed reliable and scalable solutions using a modern stack. Demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills. Education: higher technical. Skills: Python, Django, Flask, SQL, Git, REST API, Docker, teamwork, communication skills, stress resistance.
Candidate-002 — smooth text without a single verifiable fact — everything sits in the skills list
=== Candidate-007 === Middle Python Developer, Portugal (open to remote) About me: backend developer with over 5 years of experience, the last 3 years in Python. Experience: — Middle Python Developer, product company (logistics platform, mid-size), 07.2023 – present. Development and maintenance of services in Django and FastAPI. Optimized system performance by 10x by reworking database queries. Introduced Redis caching. Code review, tests with pytest. — Backend Developer, self-employed (freelance, several e-commerce and CRM clients), 01.2021 – 08.2022. Stack: Java, Spring, MySQL; some tasks — Python scripts. — Java Developer, outsourcing company (mid-size), 2019 – 2021. First commercial position, internal tools for the HR department. Education: public technical university, computer systems, bachelor's, 2017–2021. Skills: Python, Django, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Docker, Git, pytest, Java/Spring, Kafka (basic). English — B1.
Candidate-007 — a red flag: "10x" with no baseline for comparison
=== Candidate-010 === Data Engineer, Romania, remote About me: 4+ years of commercial work with Python. Started in test automation, the last two years — data engineering. Looking to move into product development. Experience: — Data Engineer, product company (retail analytics, ~80 employees), 06.2023 – present. ETL pipelines on Airflow: 40+ DAGs, daily loads from 6 sources. Data processing with pandas, loading into ClickHouse; the largest pipeline — ~12M rows per day. Analytical SQL queries for dashboards (ClickHouse, PostgreSQL as a source). Docker for reproducing pipelines locally, GitLab CI for linters. — QA Automation Engineer, outsourcing company, 04.2022 – 05.2023. Automated tests in Python: pytest + Selenium, ~600 scenarios, run in CI. Internal wrapper library for API tests (requests). Pet projects: Telegram bot for expense tracking on Django + SQLite, ~200 users. Education: public classical university, applied mathematics, master's, 2016–2021. Skills: Python, pandas, Airflow, ClickHouse, SQL, PostgreSQL, pytest, Selenium, requests, Docker, GitLab CI, Git. Django — pet-project level. English — B1.
Candidate-010 — formal Python experience is there, but it's Python for pipelines, not web services
=== Candidate-003 === bakend developer, large city/remote, in development 9 years working with backend on Java and partly Kotlin the last 4 years moved to microservices before that wrote monolithic systems in banking now I work at a product company in Fintech (payment gateway) since 2023 till now here I am team lead of a team of 5 developers responsible for the payment orchestrator which processes about 40k transactions per day with the move to microservices we cut transaction processing time from 800ms to 210ms average and the number of production incidents per quarter dropped from 14 to 3 stack Java 17 Spring Boot Kafka PostgreSQL Redis Kubernetes before that from 2019 to 2023 worked at a banking institution as a senior developer wrote the core transaction module monolithic system on Java 8 Spring MVC Oracle DB team of 12 people mentored two juniors before that from 2017 to 2019 Middle Developer first job in IT before that 5 years worked as an engineer at a plant not IT at all a completely different field so I switched through courses and self study English intermediate can write read freely speak worse no formal certificates education public technical university mechanical engineer 2008-2013 not related want to move to python because I've been writing pet projects in it for a long time and ready to consider a middle position with a grade downgrade this is a conscious choice.
Candidate-003 — strong, but from a different stack and written as one stream without punctuation