FAQ

What concrete artifact should I bring to a RAG design interview?
Bring a single‑page diagram that labels the vector store, cache tier, LLM inference node, and privacy audit hook, each with a numeric SLA (e.g., 100 ms latency, 0.2 % recall loss). The hiring manager will reject any artifact that lacks at least three numbers.

Why do interviewers penalize “large‑model” arguments?
Because the panel’s rubric, seen in the Google DeepMind June 2026 loop, treats model size as a secondary factor; the primary factor is a quantified latency budget. If you cannot show a ≤ 20 ms retrieval budget, the large‑model claim is ignored.

When does a senior L5 candidate get a $30,000 sign‑on?
Only when the debrief vote is ≥ 5‑2 in favor of hire and the candidate’s design passes the load‑test with ≤ 12 ms latency overshoot. Any vote lower than that triggers a standard $25,000 sign‑on, per the Amazon Alexa 2026 compensation table.

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