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Curated
Interview series
Foundations and Core Concepts
AI Agents / RAG

What Is an AI Agent

TechnicalEasy~30 minDesigned by experts

About this interview

A technical interview on Foundations and Core Concepts, pitched at the easy level. A voice AI interviewer leads the conversation, adapts its questions to your answers, keeps you on topic, and afterward gives you honest, specific feedback on where you were strong and where to improve. Expect roughly 30 minutes.

What you'll be assessed on

Define what an AI agent is and how it differs from a simple chatbot or pipeline
Identify the core components of an agent: perception, memory, planning, action
Explain the agent loop and how autonomy emerges from it
Describe common agent use cases and where they add value over traditional software

Topics covered

Definition and distinctionCore componentsAgent loop fundamentalsWhen to use agentsConcrete examplesMemoryAgent typesAction and tool useLLMs as agent brainsFrameworksSystem prompt and controlPerception and contextPlanningDesign patterns

A few sample questions

Just examples to set expectations - the real interview has many more and adapts to your responses.

How would you explain to a non-technical colleague what an AI agent is, and how it differs from a regular chatbot or a single API call to a language model?
How do agentic frameworks like LangGraph, CrewAI, or AutoGen relate to the core agent loop? What do they actually provide that you would otherwise have to build yourself?
What does observability mean in the context of AI agents, and why is it harder to achieve for agents than for traditional software services?

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