Attempt-flow deep policy for timed mode, draft TTL, and submit resilience

DEC-0069 - Attempt-flow deep policy for timed mode, draft TTL, and submit resilience

Context

DEC-0068 established attempt reliability baseline, but several high-frequency edge behaviors still needed explicit defaults to avoid inconsistent implementation.

Decision

Timed background and expiry behavior:

• Timed countdown remains authoritative even when user is in background.
• If timer expires, attempt follows timeout-submit path immediately.

Draft retention TTL:

• Unfinished untimed attempts keep resumable draft for 7 days from last activity.
• Timed attempts keep draft only within active timer window.

Submit review format:

• Before submit, show lightweight total answered/unanswered summary.
• For multi-section attempts, allow expandable section-level breakdown.
• Submit remains non-blocking.

Submit retry and support:

• On transient submit failure, auto-retry up to 3 attempts.
• After auto-retry exhausted:
  • keep manual retry available,
  • show support CTA.

Timed pause policy:

• No manual pause in timed mode.
• Timer continues during tab/app background.

Decision Value

• Removes ambiguity in the most failure-prone part of the learning journey.
• Preserves low-friction behavior while improving reliability and learner trust.
• Keeps implementation deterministic and scalable.

Rationale

These defaults capture the minimum behavior needed for robust attempt execution without introducing complex branching or strict user penalties.