Unit 18: Capstone & Code Defense

Stop adding features.

The final Unit is where you prove the system you already built is coherent, reproducible, tested, and understood.

Freeze, verify, explain

Start by separating work into:

REQUIRED
OPTIONAL
OUT OF SCOPE

Required behavior gets finished and verified before optional polish. Then connect requirements to evidence, inspect architecture, test important boundaries, reproduce at least one controlled failure, review Git history, and document known limitations.

The final Code Defense is an ownership check. You should be able to explain code somebody else selects, trace data through the architecture, show which test proves an important behavior, justify one design decision, and identify a limitation without pretending the project is perfect.

Three equivalent defense modes

• Live: answer questions from an instructor, mentor, or peer.
• Recorded: record a short walkthrough and answer prompts selected from the defense deck.
• Self-audited: write the answers and link each claim to source, test, Git, or runtime evidence.

The mode can change. The evidence standard does not.

Final handoff

Leave the repository so another person can clone/open it, understand how to run it, execute the tests, locate the major responsibilities, and recognize what the project does not promise to handle.

A smaller system that can survive that review is a stronger capstone than a giant demo nobody can explain.