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Making the Grade: Kata Overview

source: https://www.architecturalkatas.com/kata.html?kata=MakeTheGrade.json

Kata Overview

A very large and populous state would like a new system to support standardized testing across all public school systems grades 3-12.

Users

  • 40,000+ students
  • 2000 graders
  • 50 administrators

Requirements

  • Students will only be able to use the application within testing centers around the state, most of these will be in the schools, but not all of them

  • Students should be able to take a test, and the results eventually consolidated to a single location representing all of the test scores across the state (by school, teacher, and student).

  • Tests will be multiple choice, short answer, and essay.

  • The system should have a reporting system to know which students have taken the tests and what score they received.

  • Short answer and essay questions will be manually graded by teachers, who will then add the essay grades to the system.

Additional Context

A change approval processes involving three different government agencies is required for changes to the way student grades are kept to ensure security; The state does not own its hosting center, but outsources it to a third party; Project must defend its budget each fiscal year.

Assumptions

The following assumptions have been made regarding the given kata.

  • Initially, the complexity of Standardized Tests will remain fairly static, with an assumed 1:1 ratio of Standardized Test and its associtated questions and content : Student Grade Level.

  • A standardized Test consists of approximately 50 questions

  • A standardized Test has a time limit of 1 hour.

  • On Average, during the taking of a Standardized Test, each Student will spend approximately 1 minute answering each question

  • Students / Grade Level are fairly evenly distributed, meaning there are roughly 4,000+ students / grade level

  • Standardized Tests are taken on different days according to Grade Level

  • All students across the state take a given Standardized Test for their grade level on the same day and at roughly the same time.

Derived Technical Requirements

The following technical requirements have been derived according to the given business requirements and assumptions made.

  • The system will have significant peaks on days where standardized tests are being given, with much lower interaction and usage on days where standardized tests are not being given
  • The System must be able to handle up to ~4k requests per minute during peak days in which standardized tests are being given
  • 40k students / 10 grade levels / 1 answer per minute = ~4k req/min