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MCP Server Design & Primitives Selection Challenge

  • 6 hours ago
  • 4 min read

Course: MCP Fundamentals 

Level: Medium

Type: Individual Assignment

Duration: 4–5 days




Objective

The objective of this assignment is to help you:


  • Understand the architectural problem MCP solves and why earlier approaches failed

  • Master the distinction between Tools, Resources, and Prompts

  • Apply primitive selection logic to real-world integration scenarios

  • Design MCP Server architectures with appropriate primitives

  • Analyze trade-offs in transport mechanisms and deployment models





Problem Statement


You are a system architect tasked with designing MCP Server integrations for three different business scenarios. Each scenario requires you to make thoughtful decisions about which MCP primitives (Tools, Resources, Prompts) to use, how to structure them, and how to deploy them.


Your task is to:

Design comprehensive MCP Server architectures that demonstrate deep understanding of MCP's design principles and appropriate primitive selection.





Tasks & Requirements




Task 1: Scenario-Based MCP Server Design (50 Marks)

Design complete MCP Server architectures for THREE scenarios below.



SCENARIO A: Customer Support Knowledge Base Integration (12 Marks)


Context: Your company has a large customer support knowledge base with:


  • 5,000+ support articles organized by category

  • Active ticket system with real-time ticket data

  • Historical ticket resolution data

  • Standard response templates for common issues



Design Requirements:


  • At least 3 Tools

  • At least 3 Resources (including at least 1 Resource Template)

  • At least 1 Prompt

  • Explain which transport mechanism is appropriate and why



SCENARIO B: Enterprise Database Analytics MCP Server (14 Marks)


Context: You need to give AI assistants safe, controlled access to a production


PostgreSQL database containing:


  • Customer data (sensitive)

  • Sales transactions

  • Product catalog

  • User analytics



Design Requirements:


  • At least 4 Tools (including at least one with side effects)

  • At least 2 Resources

  • At least 1 Prompt that encodes best practices for database queries

  • Describe how you would handle security concerns

  • Explain read-only vs write operations primitive selection



SCENARIO C: Development Workflow Automation Server (14 Marks)


Context: An MCP Server for developer productivity that integrates with:


  • Local filesystem (read/write code files)

  • Git repository (commit, branch, PR operations)

  • Code quality tools (linters, formatters)

  • Test runners



Design Requirements:


  • At least 5 Tools covering different workflow aspects

  • At least 3 Resources (including dynamic/templated resources)

  • At least 2 Prompts for common development workflows

  • Explain why stdio transport is preferable and what the trade-offs are




Task 2: Multi-Server Architecture Design (50 Marks)

Design a multi-server MCP architecture for a complete business workflow.



Scenario: Incident Response & Resolution System


An AI agent needs to handle production incidents by coordinating across:


  • Monitoring system (metrics, logs, alerts)

  • Incident management (PagerDuty/Opsgenie)

  • Communication platform (Slack/Teams)

  • Code repository (GitHub/GitLab)

  • Knowledge base (Confluence/Notion)



Requirements:

Design 4-5 specialized MCP Servers (one per system)


For each server, specify:


  • Name and purpose

  • Key Tools exposed

  • Key Resources exposed

  • Transport mechanism



Create an architecture diagram showing:


  • The Host

  • Multiple Clients (one per Server)

  • All Servers

  • Data flow for a complete incident response workflow

  • Describe how the Host orchestrates requests across multiple servers

  • Explain the security boundaries between servers





Deliverables

You must submit:


1. Written Report (Required)


  • A technical report (PDF or DOCX) including:

  • Cover page with your details

  • Table of contents

  • Task 1: MCP Server Designs (8-10 pages, including all 3 scenarios)

  • Task 2: Multi-Server Architecture (4-5 pages)

  • References (if any)




2. Diagrams & Visual Aids (Required)


  • Multi-server architecture diagram (Task 2)

  • Any additional diagrams that clarify your designs



Tools you may use:


  • Draw.io / Lucidchart

  • Figma / Miro

  • PowerPoint / Google Slides

  • Hand-drawn (if clear and legible)




3. JSON Schema Examples (Required)


For Task 1, provide actual JSON definitions for:


  • At least 3 complete Tool definitions (with inputSchema)

  • At least 2 Resource definitions

  • At least 1 Prompt definition


These can be included in an appendix or separate JSON file





Submission Guidelines

Submit via your LMS (e.g., Moodle / Google Classroom).


File Naming Convention: <YourName>_MCP_Assignment1.zip


Inside the ZIP:


  • /report.pdf

  • /diagrams/ (all visual diagrams)

  • /json_examples/ (JSON schema definitions)

  • /README.txt (any additional notes - optional)


Deadline: Submit within 5 days from assignment release


Late Submission Policy:


  • Up to 24 hours late → 10% penalty

  • 24–48 hours → 20% penalty

  • Beyond 48 hours → Not accepted





Important Instructions


  • Do NOT copy code from external sources without understanding

  • You must explain your logic clearly

  • Use of libraries is allowed, but core logic must be implemented by you

  • Plagiarism will result in disqualification





Evaluation Rubric


Criterion

Marks

Task 1: Scenario-Based Designs (All 3)

50 marks

Task 2: Multi-Server Architecture

50 marks

Total

100 marks





Instructor Note

This assignment is designed to simulate real-world system design thinking.

There is no single correct answer.


What matters is:


  • clarity of reasoning

  • quality of implementation

  • depth of analysis






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