An HTTP 200 is not a delivered job application

Every auto-apply tool I have taken apart marks an application "sent" at the same moment: the instant it dispatches the click. That is a read-back of our own input, and it is the weakest signal in the whole pipeline. The four signals that look like proof and are not I shipped all four of these at some point and had to take them back out. 1. Our own click. The submit button was pressed. Nothing about that tells you a request left the browser, or that the server accepted it, or that a row was written on the other side. 2. HTTP 200. A 200 means a server answered. Applicant tracking systems return 200 for validation errors, for a re-rendered form with a red field, and for a page that says "we could not process your application". A status code is not a receipt. 3. Our own database row. We wrote status = submitted. We wrote it. Scoring on a value you set yourself is circular, and it is the single easiest way to build a dashboard that is confidently wrong. 4. A page that look