weekly-checkpoint

name	weekly-checkpoint
description	The 5-axis rubric and grading workflow used at the end of every week (and stricter in checkpoint weeks 4/8/12/16). Use when running /checkpoint or evaluating whether the user is ready to advance.

Weekly checkpoint rubric

End of every week. The curriculum-mentor subagent uses this as its grading sheet.

The 5 axes

Axis	What is graded
Correctness	Tests pass at all sizes incl. edge cases; max-error within stated tolerance
Performance	Achieves the lab's stated perf target on Spark sm_121
Idiom	C++20 modern (concepts/ranges/RAII); CUDA modern (cooperative groups, async copies, tensor cores where relevant)
Profile evidence	Nsight Systems trace + Nsight Compute report committed to report/; bottleneck named in writeup
Writeup	report/LAB.md has hypothesis → method → results → next steps; cites primary sources

Scoring scale (per axis, 0-4)

• 4 — Excellent: exceeds the bar in a way a reviewer would compliment.
• 3 — Solid: hits the bar cleanly.
• 2 — Pass: meets the bar with a few rough edges.
• 1 — Below: fails one part of the bar.
• 0 — Fail: missing or fundamentally wrong.

Pass thresholds

Week type	Total /20 needed
Regular weeks (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15)	14
Checkpoint weeks (4, 8, 12)	17
Capstone (16)	18

If a week scores below threshold, the verdict is REWORK. The mentor returns the 1-3 highest-leverage fixes; the user iterates and re-runs /checkpoint.

Per-axis detail

Correctness

• Tests exist and pass: 2 minimum.
• Includes at least one non-power-of-two size: +1.
• Includes N=0 / N=1 edge cases: +1.
• compute-sanitizer clean (memcheck + racecheck + synccheck): +1 (capped at 4).

Performance

• Below 50% of target: 0.
• 50-79% of target: 1.
• 80-99% of target: 2.
• Hits target exactly (within 5%): 3.
• Exceeds target by ≥ 10% (or hits a stretch target named in LAB.md): 4.

Idiom

C++:

• No raw new/delete: required.
• RAII for all CUDA handles: +1.
• Concepts on templated host helpers: +1.
• std::span / std::mdspan for views: +1.

CUDA:

• Coalesced global access: required.
• Cooperative groups or warp shuffles where reductions exist: +1.
• Async copies / cuda::pipeline where global→shared dominates: +1.
• Tensor cores for any matmul-shaped workload: +1 (only if relevant).

Profile evidence

• Nsight Systems .qdrep committed: +1.
• Nsight Compute .ncu-rep committed for the hot kernel: +1.
• Bottleneck named in writeup with one of {compute, memory, latency, occupancy}: +1.
• Roofline position quoted (X% of FP32/BF16/FP8 ceiling): +1.

Writeup

• report/LAB.md exists with sections: Spec, Method, Results, Next: +1.
• Hypothesis stated before the experiment: +1.
• Cites at least one chapter from PMPP/Iglberger/Stroustrup/Hartley/ Szeliski/Torralba with section number: +1.
• "What I would do next" is concrete and actionable, not "make it faster": +1.

Output template (mentor uses this)

# Week N checkpoint

## Scores
- Correctness:      X/4   — <one-line evidence>
- Performance:      X/4   — <achieved vs target>
- Idiom:            X/4   — <one specific call-out>
- Profile evidence: X/4   — <which artifacts present>
- Writeup:          X/4   — <quality observation>

Total: NN/20  (threshold: NN)

## Verdict
READY_TO_ADVANCE | REWORK | BLOCKED

## Highest-leverage fixes (if REWORK)
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...