{
  "context": "This criteria evaluates how effectively an engineer uses the mixin-deep package to implement in-place configuration merging. The focus is on proper usage of mixin-deep's in-place mutation capability rather than general code quality.",
  "type": "weighted_checklist",
  "checklist": [
    {
      "name": "Uses mixin-deep import",
      "description": "The solution correctly imports and uses the mixin-deep package (either as default import or named import depending on the package's export style)",
      "max_score": 15
    },
    {
      "name": "In-place mutation",
      "description": "The solution passes the original config object as the first argument to mixin-deep, enabling in-place mutation of the target object rather than creating unnecessary copies",
      "max_score": 30
    },
    {
      "name": "Returns mutated reference",
      "description": "The function returns the result from mixin-deep, which is a reference to the mutated first argument, allowing callers to use the return value or the original reference interchangeably",
      "max_score": 20
    },
    {
      "name": "Correct argument order",
      "description": "The solution passes arguments to mixin-deep in the correct order: target object first (config), then source object(s) (updates), ensuring proper merge direction",
      "max_score": 20
    },
    {
      "name": "No manual merging",
      "description": "The solution leverages mixin-deep for the merge operation rather than manually implementing object traversal, property copying, or using other merge utilities",
      "max_score": 15
    }
  ]
}