Test recovery and reconciliation
Course overview · 4 min reading + 12 min practice, estimated
Principles and method
Test crashes and delayed events at boundaries, not only invalid form fields. Verify that an operator can identify incomplete work, inspect safe context and choose a supported recovery action. Reconciliation compares internal and external state to find mismatches. Define how often it runs and what it can repair automatically. Keep manual overrides auditable and permissioned. Load tests should include backpressure so a surge does not overwhelm people or providers. A system is operationally mature when failure is visible, bounded and recoverable, not when logs happen to be quiet.
Worked example
A test kills the worker after the calendar provider succeeds. Reconciliation finds the event by its operation reference and completes the local record without sending another invitation.
Put it into practice
Write four failure-injection tests and expected reconciliation outcomes.
Use fictional information and keep your work in your own notes.
Compare your approach: self-review guidance
Include concurrent duplicates, lost responses, stale cancellations and a full review queue. Verify final state and external side effects, not just a successful HTTP response.
Sources and further reading
Original Academy teaching and fictional examples. These references provide context, not endorsement. Edition 2026.09; updated 2026-09-24.
- GOV.UK: Responsible AI in recruitment
UK guidance on procuring and deploying recruitment AI.
- NIST: AI Risk Management Framework
Voluntary framework for organising AI risks and controls.