MCP & Protocol Testing / Scenario
The Handshake That Hung
A new MCP client connects and immediately stalls. Read the JSON-RPC trace and pin the exact lifecycle rule it violated.
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Format
- Scenario
- Points
- 200
- Estimate
- 15 min
// MISSION BRIEF
Your Mission
A partner team wrote a fresh MCP client. Against your server it hangs on connect, tools never load. Their logs say "server unresponsive." Your server logs tell a different story.
You have the full JSON-RPC trace. Find the lifecycle violation, and decide who is actually at fault.
// FIRST CONTACT
Battle teaser
First artifact
JSON-RPC trace (client -> server, server -> client)
Which lifecycle rules did the client break? (Select all that apply.)
- AIt declared a capability the server rejected
- BIt never sent notifications/initialized
- CIt used an unsupported protocolVersion
- DIt sent tools/list before the server responded to initialize
Answers, scoring, hints, and the full battle stay sealed.
// SKILL TAGS
mcphandshakelifecycleprotocol-testingdebugging