Practice Questions
A week in the life of a CTO, compressed into ten decisions — each pulling on more than one module at once.
How to Practice Effectively
Real CTO decisions rarely have a clean right answer — they have a best-reasoned answer under uncertainty. For each scenario, commit to a choice, then articulate the trade-off you just accepted. If you can't name what your answer costs, you haven't finished thinking.
Pro Tip
Try answering each question twice: once as the engineer you are today, once as the CTO responsible for payroll, clients, and the three-year vision. Where the answers differ is exactly where this board is trying to stretch you.
Review by Module
If you want to focus on specific areas, revisit the individual module quizzes:
ROI & Decision-Making Quiz
5 scenarios with numbers worth arguing about
The God Product Quiz
5 scenarios on vision and abstraction
Roadmapping Quiz
5 scenarios on aligning wins to vision
Project Planning Quiz
5 scenarios on research, artifacts, and slicing
SecOps & SOC 2 Quiz
5 scenarios on DR, integrity, and audits
R&D & Innovation Quiz
5 scenarios on bets, spikes, and tokens
Comprehensive Practice Quiz
Ten scenarios that mix ROI math, vision alignment, roadmap politics, security posture, and R&D bets — the way an actual Tuesday does.
Note
Several questions deliberately pit two good principles against each other. The explanations argue the resolution; disagreeing with reasons is also a fine outcome — that's what design reviews are for.
What's Next?
Strategic judgment is built by making real calls and reviewing them. Bring one decision from your current work — a build-vs-buy, a tactical-vs-aligned choice, a bet worth killing — and run it through the frameworks here, in writing, in a public channel.
Technical Foundations sharpens the engineering judgment these decisions rest on, and Communication Standards is how a CTO's thinking actually lands with a team.