IVQA 201-250

201. How do you horizontally scale a GenAI service?

  • Deploy multiple stateless inference workers behind a load balancer

  • Use container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes)

  • Separate frontend/API, vector DB, and LLM layers

  • Scale RAG independently of model inference


202. What are GPU memory optimization strategies for LLM inference?

  • Use quantized models (e.g., 4-bit, 8-bit)

  • Enable KV cache reuse

  • Apply tensor parallelism and offloading

  • Serve using frameworks like vLLM or DeepSpeed-Inference


203. How would you handle rate limits for large-scale OpenAI API usage?

  • Implement token-level retry with backoff

  • Rotate API keys or use rate-aware load balancing

  • Queue and batch user requests

  • Monitor usage and forecast spikes


204. What’s the difference between multi-GPU vs. multi-node LLM serving?

  • Multi-GPU (same machine): Faster, lower latency, shared memory

  • Multi-node: Enables scaling across machines, but with communication overhead (e.g., using NCCL, DeepSpeed)


205. How can you use model sharding in production environments?

  • Split model weights across GPUs or nodes (tensor/model parallelism)

  • Use libraries like Megatron-LM, DeepSpeed, or Hugging Face Accelerate

  • Requires sync between shards during inference


206. What is speculative decoding and how does it improve throughput?

  • Run a small model to draft predictions

  • Use a large model to validate/correct them

  • Reduces latency by avoiding full generation for every token


207. What are the main bottlenecks in high-load GenAI applications?

  • Token throughput limits

  • GPU memory and concurrency constraints

  • Retrieval latency in RAG

  • Inefficient batching or prompt length explosion


208. How do you manage logs and observability in a GenAI backend?

  • Centralized logging (e.g., with Loki, ELK)

  • Monitor token usage, latency, error rates

  • Trace prompt → model → response paths

  • Use tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Sentry


209. How do you build a cost-monitoring dashboard for GenAI endpoints?

  • Track tokens used per request

  • Multiply by pricing model (e.g., $/1k tokens)

  • Visualize by user/session/feature

  • Export to dashboards (e.g., Metabase, Grafana)


210. What is KV cache reuse and how does it optimize performance?

  • Key-value caches store previous attention computations

  • Allows faster generation for multi-turn prompts

  • Avoids recomputing context for every new token


211. What are the main types of agents in LangChain or AutoGen?

  • Reactive agents: Act step-by-step without full planning

  • Planner-Executor: First plan, then execute actions

  • Tool-using agents: Call external functions/APIs

  • Collaborative agents (AutoGen): Multiple roles working together


212. How do agents handle tool selection dynamically?

  • Use prompt-based reasoning to decide which tool fits

  • Maintain tool metadata (name, description, params)

  • Use function calling or LangChain’s Tool interface

  • Feedback loop: tool → output → next decision


213. What’s the difference between planner-executor and reactive agents?

Agent Type
Planning Phase
Flexibility
Efficiency

Reactive

No

High

May repeat

Planner-Executor

Yes

Medium

Structured


214. How would you design a memory-aware GenAI assistant using tools?

  • Store episodic memory in a vector store (e.g., Qdrant)

  • Retrieve relevant memory on each turn

  • Use tools for summarization, calendar access, or search

  • Maintain memory trace to reduce context loss


215. How can agents collaborate or hand off tasks to each other?

  • Use AutoGen’s multi-agent framework

  • Define protocols (e.g., User Proxy → Coder → Critic)

  • Pass message history or context

  • Define exit criteria or delegation logic


216. How do you sandbox tool-executing agents for safety?

  • Run in containerized environments with limited permissions

  • Whitelist tool types and arguments

  • Monitor execution time and outputs

  • Apply runtime guards or function wrappers


217. How do you create an autonomous agent for report generation?

  • Use planner to define tasks: data fetch → summarize → generate slides

  • Schedule runs (daily/weekly)

  • Log outputs and allow review

  • Add tools like PDFGen, DBQuery, summarizer


218. What role does the scratchpad play in reasoning agents?

  • Stores intermediate thoughts, decisions, tool outputs

  • Helps the agent “think out loud”

  • Enables better transparency and multi-step reasoning

  • Used in ReAct and LangChain chains


219. How do agents balance exploration vs. exploitation in decision-making?

  • Score and rank tool options by confidence or past success

  • Use randomness or UCB-like strategies

  • Adjust based on feedback or failure patterns


220. How can GenAI agents perform complex multi-step workflows?

  • Chain sub-agents via plans or FSMs (Finite State Machines)

  • Inject memory/state between steps

  • Use LangGraph or AutoGen for dynamic state transitions

  • Recover from failure by reasoning + retry


221. How do you personalize a GenAI chatbot for individual users?

  • Store user profile, preferences, and prior chats

  • Retrieve personalized context per query

  • Use prompt templates that adapt dynamically

  • Apply embeddings to match interests or tone


222. What’s the role of user embeddings in personalizing responses?

  • Represent user interests, behavior, tone as vectors

  • Used for retrieval, ranking, or conditioning LLM outputs

  • Enable collaborative filtering for suggestions


223. How do you maintain personalization across sessions securely?

  • Store tokens or IDs in secure databases

  • Use hashed identifiers

  • Encrypt memory and limit access

  • Allow users to reset memory or opt out


224. What are privacy challenges in personalized GenAI apps?

  • Storing sensitive data (e.g., preferences, history)

  • Compliance (e.g., GDPR, CCPA)

  • Risks of model leaks if fine-tuned on PII

  • Need for explainability and opt-out options


225. How do you use retrieval to provide contextually aware responses?

  • Index user-specific notes, docs, history

  • Embed and store in a vector DB

  • On query, retrieve top-k chunks

  • Inject into prompt to provide relevant answers


226. How do you fine-tune an LLM on user feedback?

  • Collect structured feedback (thumbs up/down + reasoning)

  • Aggregate and format into training pairs

  • Use LoRA or SFT pipelines

  • Iterate in evaluation cycles


227. What is reinforcement learning with user signals (RLUS)?

  • Use implicit signals (clicks, retention, edits) as rewards

  • Apply them in a bandit or RLHF framework

  • Continuously fine-tune the model based on real-world interaction


228. How can GenAI recommend content adaptively in real time?

  • Embed both users and content

  • Use nearest neighbor matching (e.g., cosine similarity)

  • Rerank with context relevance

  • Adjust recommendations based on real-time interactions


229. What’s the tradeoff between personalization and generalization?

Personalization
Generalization

High engagement

Better for new users

Risk of overfitting

Robust performance

Less scalable

Easier to deploy


230. How would you build a personalized study tutor using GenAI?

  • Track student progress (topics, mistakes, goals)

  • Generate adaptive quizzes and hints

  • Retrieve previous Q&A for reference

  • Use conversational fine-tuning + retrieval for feedback


231. What are the principles behind Constitutional AI?

  • Define ethical principles as rules (e.g., “Don’t cause harm”)

  • Use LLM to self-critique outputs during training

  • Replace or augment RLHF with model-guided alignment

  • Introduced by Anthropic


232. How do you ensure alignment of LLMs with company values?

  • Embed values in system prompts and outputs

  • Fine-tune with curated, value-aligned datasets

  • Apply moderation and feedback loops

  • Audit outputs for tone, accuracy, fairness


233. How can LLMs be aligned post-deployment?

  • Use real-time filtering (e.g., Moderation API)

  • Apply reward models for reranking

  • Collect user feedback for fine-tuning

  • Isolate high-risk domains with stricter controls


234. What is the difference between supervised fine-tuning and RLHF?

Technique
Description

SFT

Learn from labeled examples

RLHF

Reward preferred behavior via feedback loop


235. How do you detect harmful or biased outputs in real-time?

  • Use moderation models (toxicity, hate speech, bias)

  • Pattern matching (regex)

  • Statistical monitoring (e.g., outlier detection)

  • Route flagged outputs to human review


236. What are adversarial prompts, and how do you defend against them?

  • Prompts designed to bypass guardrails (e.g., "ignore instructions")

  • Defenses: prompt hardening, sandboxed tool execution, input validation, behavior simulation during training


237. How can GenAI support explainability in its outputs?

  • Use step-by-step reasoning prompts (e.g., Chain-of-Thought)

  • Highlight source documents in RAG

  • Add metadata (retrieved docs, scoring)

  • Maintain scratchpad logs


238. What’s the role of safety layers and filters like OpenAI’s Moderation API?

  • Post-process outputs to detect content violations

  • Block or reroute unsafe completions

  • Enforce TOS compliance

  • Allow audit and oversight


239. How do you manage trade-offs between safety and creativity in generation?

  • Adjust temperature and decoding strategies

  • Use persona-specific safety rules

  • Accept some variance in low-risk domains

  • Separate exploratory vs. production modes


240. How do companies like Anthropic approach LLM alignment?

  • Use Constitutional AI for self-supervision

  • Incorporate transparency and model critique

  • Test for harmlessness, helpfulness, honesty

  • Emphasize red teaming and internal safety evaluations


241. How do you compress models for edge deployment?

  • Use quantization, distillation, pruning

  • Apply LoRA for efficient adaptation

  • Offload layers to disk if memory-bound


242. Compare TinyLLaMA, DistilGPT, and other small LLMs.

Model
Size
Use Case

TinyLLaMA

~1B

Edge, fast response

DistilGPT-2

~82M

Chatbots, basic tasks

Phi-2

~2.7B

Reasoning, balanced


243. How do you handle low-bandwidth GenAI applications?

  • Perform compression (gzip, protobuf)

  • Cache frequent responses

  • Minimize prompt length

  • Serve smaller distilled models


244. What are on-device privacy benefits for GenAI assistants?

  • No data leaves the device

  • Reduces regulatory risk (GDPR, HIPAA)

  • No dependency on network or cloud providers

  • Improves response latency


245. How do you optimize inference for ARM architectures?

  • Use ONNX with ARM-specific backends

  • Quantize models with TVM, TensorRT, or GGML

  • Avoid memory-intensive attention variants


246. What’s the best model quantization method for small devices?

  • 4-bit GPTQ or AWQ for smallest footprint

  • int8 for speed-accuracy tradeoff

  • ZeroQuant for training-aware quantization


247. How do you deploy a GenAI chatbot on a Raspberry Pi?

  • Use quantized TinyLLaMA or DistilGPT

  • Run via GGML or llama.cpp

  • Use FastAPI + SQLite for storage

  • Limit context to reduce load


248. What are trade-offs when using 4-bit vs. 8-bit quantized models?

4-bit
8-bit

Smaller, slower

Faster, more accurate

More memory savings

Less compression


249. What are low-resource strategies for building domain-specific GenAI apps?

  • Fine-tune small models with LoRA

  • Limit scope of tasks

  • Use retrieval over generation when possible

  • Precompute responses for FAQs


250. How do you use LoRA for quick personalization in resource-constrained environments?

  • Attach LoRA adapters to a base model

  • Train with few-shot data

  • Avoid full model tuning

  • Works well on edge with quantized base models


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