Technical practice
How would you design an LLM-based application for a defined business objective?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Explain how you would translate the objective into an application design, select where the LLM adds value, and define its inputs and outputs. Discuss quality, latency and cost as design trade-offs rather than assuming one model fits every use case.
How would you evaluate whether a generative AI solution is ready for practical use?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Describe representative test cases and measures of output usefulness, accuracy and reliability. Explain how you would investigate failures and decide whether changes improve the solution against its intended objective.
How would you choose between cloud AI services and an on-premises deployment?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Compare operational control, integration needs, scalability, latency and cost for the stated use case. Explain what information you would need before making a recommendation.
How would you make an AI application pipeline production-ready?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Walk through the pipeline from inputs to model inference and downstream outputs, including deployment and ongoing improvement. Address how you would test components, handle failures and measure performance.
How would you troubleshoot a production AI pipeline that has become slower or less reliable?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Explain how you would isolate the affected stage and distinguish model-related problems from integration or infrastructure problems. Describe how you would validate a fix without disrupting the wider application.
How would you integrate an AI component into a larger system?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Describe the component's inputs, outputs, interfaces and failure behavior, then explain how you would test the end-to-end flow. Discuss trade-offs between keeping the component independent and adapting the surrounding system.
How would you design and assess a chatbot within an AI application?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Explain how the chatbot would manage user requests, maintain useful conversational context and respond when it cannot provide a sound answer. Describe tests that would show whether it serves the intended application.
How would you integrate an image-processing module into an AI solution?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Outline how image inputs would be prepared, processed and passed to the rest of the system. Discuss how you would evaluate output quality and handle unsuitable or unexpected inputs.
When would a deep learning approach be appropriate for an application?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Compare relevant neural-network approaches with simpler alternatives in terms of available data, expected performance and deployment demands. Explain how familiarity with a framework would help you build and evaluate the chosen approach.
How would you assess a new AI technology before recommending it for a project?
What to coverSuggested preparation: Define the project outcome it might improve and compare it with the current approach using a limited evaluation. Explain how you would weigh demonstrated benefit against integration and production costs.
Behavioural practice
Tell me about a time you made a consequential technical decision for a team.
What to coverSuggested preparation: Set out the situation, your decision criteria and the actions you took to bring the team to a decision. Describe the result and what you learned from the outcome.
Describe a problem you helped solve across multiple teams.
What to coverSuggested preparation: Explain each team's role, the point of disagreement or dependency, and how you worked toward a solution. State the result and your specific contribution.
Tell me about a time you mentored a junior team member.
What to coverSuggested preparation: Describe the skill or problem involved, the guidance you provided and how you adjusted it to the person's needs. Explain the observable result without overstating your role.
Describe how you aligned a technical solution with stakeholder objectives.
What to coverSuggested preparation: Explain the business objective, relevant technical constraints and how you handled differing priorities. Describe the agreed approach and its result.
Tell me about a time you proposed a new technical approach to improve a project.
What to coverSuggested preparation: Describe the opportunity, how you assessed the approach and how you communicated its trade-offs. Explain what was decided and the resulting impact, including if the proposal was not adopted.