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Level 7 / Project 05 - Polling Cadence Manager

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— This project — — Flashcards — —

Focus

  • collect interval planning and drift checks

Why this project exists

This project gives you level-appropriate practice in a realistic operations context. Goal: run the baseline, alter behavior, break one assumption, recover safely, and explain the fix.

Run (copy/paste)

Use <repo-root> as the folder containing this repository's README.md.

cd <repo-root>/projects/level-7/05-polling-cadence-manager
python project.py --input data/sample_input.txt --output data/output_summary.json
pytest -q

Expected terminal output

... output_summary.json written ...
2 passed

Expected artifacts

  • data/output_summary.json
  • Passing tests
  • Updated notes.md

Alter it (required)

  1. Add a jitter parameter that adds random variation (e.g. +/- 10%) to the interval to prevent thundering herd.
  2. Track and report the average interval across all polls in the simulation.
  3. Re-run script and tests — verify jitter and average interval appear in output.

Break it (required)

  1. Set backoff_factor to 0 or negative and observe what happens to the interval.
  2. Set min_interval greater than max_interval and run the simulation.
  3. Capture the infinite loop or nonsensical interval values.

Fix it (required)

  1. Validate that backoff_factor > 1.0 and speedup_factor is between 0 and 1.
  2. Raise ValueError if min_interval >= max_interval.
  3. Add tests for invalid config values and boundary conditions.

Explain it (teach-back)

  1. Why does exponential backoff reduce load on an unchanged data source?
  2. What happened when backoff_factor was zero?
  3. How did the validation prevent the runaway interval?
  4. Where is adaptive polling used in real monitoring systems?

Mastery check

You can move on when you can: - run baseline without docs, - explain one core function line-by-line, - break and recover in one session, - keep tests passing after your change.

Mastery Check

  • Can you explain the architectural trade-offs in your solution?
  • Could you refactor this for a completely different use case?
  • Can you identify at least two alternative approaches and explain why you chose yours?
  • Could you debug this without print statements, using only breakpoint()?
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