Reference · delivery

Submission Checklist

Print this. Work down it the evening you send. It exists so the last five minutes cannot undo the previous fifteen hours.

1 · The code

▢ mvn clean test is green from a cold start
▢ No System.out.println debugging left in src/main
▢ No commented-out code, no TODO, no FIXME
▢ Style matches the supplied code — final parameters, javadoc on public members (the pom runs sun_checks)
▢ Nothing uses a language feature above Java 11
▢ No unused imports or dead private methods
▢ Every class you added has a javadoc comment saying what it is for

2 · The tests

▢ BookTest and LibraryTest exist — the Graduate requirement is named explicitly in the brief
▢ All three domain exceptions have a test asserting type and message
▢ Persistence has a round-trip test with an awkward title in it
▢ The golden master approved file is committed
▢ No test writes into the repository — @TempDir everywhere
▢ Test names read as sentences, not test1, test2

3 · The git history

▢ Commit 1 is the unmodified starter
▢ user.name and user.email are yours, not root@localhost
▢ No commit called “wip”, “stuff”, “fixes” or “final”
▢ Every commit builds — spot-check two with git stash and git checkout
▢ git status --short prints nothing
▢ target/, .idea/, libraryState.txt are all ignored and none is tracked — check with git ls-files | grep -E 'target|\.idea|libraryState'

4 · The README

▢ How to build and run — exact, copy-pasteable commands
▢ The approach taken (legacy-code reframe, golden master, then TDD)
▢ What was wrong with the supplied code, and what changed
▢ Design decisions with their trade-offs
▢ Deviations from the brief — void returns, Optional — with reasons
▢ What you deliberately did not build, and why
▢ Bonus features listed and marked as beyond the required tier
▢ You followed your own instructions literally, from the unzipped copy, in a fresh terminal

5 · Packaging

# Clean first - .class files are the main cause of quarantined attachments
cd ~/Desktop/java-guild-candidate-test-intermediate-main
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 25)
~/.local/maven/bin/mvn clean
git status --short          # must print nothing

cd ..
zip -qr tom-spencer-library-management-system.zip \
    java-guild-candidate-test-intermediate-main \
    -x '*/target/*' -x '*/.idea/*' -x '*.DS_Store'

▢ The .git directory is inside the zip — that is the point
▢ target/ and .idea/ are not
▢ Size is sensible — the reference solution came to 76 KB. If yours is megabytes, target/ got in
▢ Filename identifies you: tom-spencer-library-management-system.zip

6 · Verify as the assessor

Do not skip this

Unzip somewhere clean and do exactly what they will do:

mkdir /tmp/assessor && cd /tmp/assessor
unzip -q ~/Desktop/tom-spencer-library-management-system.zip
cd java-guild-candidate-test-intermediate-main

git log --oneline       # history survived the zip?
git status --short      # clean tree?
mvn clean test          # builds from cold?

Expected, from the reference solution:

Tests run: 15, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
BUILD SUCCESS

Then run the program and add a book, borrow it, exit, restart, and confirm it is still borrowed. Ninety seconds, and it is the last chance to catch something that only works on your machine.

7 · GitHub, as a supplement

▢ Repo is public — an invitation is friction on their side
▢ Named clearly, e.g. solirius-library-management-system
▢ The link is in the README and the email
▢ The zip still goes as an attachment. The brief asked for one; a link is an addition, never a substitute

8 · The email

▢ Attachment actually attached
▢ Three sentences: what it is, which tier, where the history and README are
▢ No apologising, no listing what you would have done with more time — that belongs in the README as a deliberate scope decision
▢ Send it to yourself first and open the attachment from that copy

If the zip bounces

The brief permits .7z. Failing that, send the GitHub link and say the zip was blocked by a mail filter — so it reads as a mail-server problem, not as you ignoring the instruction.

9 · Before the interview

▢ Re-read your own diff: git diff HEAD~12
▢ For every hunk, answer “why, and what did I reject?” in one sentence
▢ Re-run Lesson 0009 cold
▢ Have three answers ready for “what would you do next?”
▢ Have your question for them ready