Week 1 Reading Questions

Tip

💡 Pro-tip: ✨ Start here! Before you begin the reading, take a quick look at these questions. They’ll point you toward the key ideas to watch for.

📚 As you read, keep them in the back of your mind—they’re like little mental sticky notes.

✅ After you’re done, come back and quiz yourself. Can you answer them without peeking? That’s how you know you’ve nailed the core concepts!

Question 1

What is Supabase? What functionality does it provide for your app?

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Supabase is an open-source Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that helps you build and scale apps faster. It provides essential backend functionality out of the box, including:

• 🔐 Authentication – Sign up, login, and manage users
• 🗄️ Database – A powerful PostgreSQL database with real-time updates
• 💾 Storage – Upload and serve files like images or PDFs
• ⚙️ Edge Functions – Write custom serverless logic (e.g., Stripe webhooks)

It’s like having your own full backend team—without needing to build everything from scratch.age for our application, if needed.

Question 2

If you wanted Cursor to implement a feature like Stripe payments, what settings should you choose? Which mode? Which AI Model? Thinking vs. No thinking mode?

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Mode: 🧠 Agent mode

AI Model: 🤖 Claude 3.5 or 3.7 (Anthropic)

Thinking Mode: ✅ Turn ON

Explanation: Implementing something like Stripe payments is a fairly complex task—it involves setting up API calls, secure environments, server-side logic, and possibly webhooks. If you don’t already have deep familiarity with it, you’ll want the AI to help you think through the architecture, not just generate code snippets. That’s why Agent mode is ideal: it helps plan and suggest changes across multiple files. Anthropic models (like Claude 3.7) tend to perform best for coding tasks involving reasoning and multi-step planning. And turning Thinking Mode ON gives the AI space to reflect before generating—this is key when you’re dealing with unfamiliar or intricate features.

Question 3

How do you expect to divide your time using Cursor? (Example: 50% learning/understanding, 50% feature implementation)

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There’s no single right answer—it really depends on your experience level and the task at hand.

If you’re new to a concept or unfamiliar with the feature you’re building (like setting up auth or payments), a good split might be: 🔍 75% Learning/Understanding, 25% Implementation This helps you build foundational knowledge while using Cursor to explore ideas, debug, and ask thoughtful questions.

As you gain confidence, you might shift toward: ⚙️ 40% Learning, 60% Implementation relying more on Cursor to scaffold files, automate repetitive steps, and speed up development.

The key is being intentional—use Cursor not just to code faster, but to think better.