Process/Agile
Spike
Also written as Agile Spike
A short, timeboxed piece of work meant to answer a specific technical question or reduce uncertainty (e.g. 'will this library actually work for us?') before committing to build the real feature.
Think of it like
Like a contractor drilling one test hole before committing to dig the whole foundation, just to check what's actually underground first.
Junior or senior?
Junior sounds like
Says they 'did some research' before building a feature.
Senior sounds like
Describes a spike that changed their team's plan based on what it actually found.
Ask them
“Tell me about a spike that changed your team's plan. What did it reveal that you didn't expect?”