Multi-Hop RAG and Decomposition (EXPLAINED)
Hard RAG interview question on multi-hop rag and decomposition — architecture, trade-offs, eval, and production patterns.
TL;DR — Quick Answer
Complex questions need decomposition into sub-queries, iterative retrieval, and intermediate synthesis. Single-shot top-k retrieval fails when answers require chaining facts across documents — use planners, graph traversal, or agentic retrieve loops with stopping criteria.
The Interview Question
Explain multi-hop rag and decomposition. How would you design, implement, and evaluate this in a production RAG system? Discuss trade-offs and failure modes.
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RAGMulti-HopDecomposition