Research Agent Works Ten Question Explained
This worked AI Engineer Interview practice question tests System Reasoning. Try the answer first, then review why B is the best choice.
Short answer
The correct answer is B. One undifferentiated memory: immutable goals, working state, and untrusted evidence share a single context that summarization keeps eroding..
Every listed symptom — lost constraints, forgotten rejections, untrusted notes gaining authority — is state that needed different lifetimes and trust levels collapsing into one recursively summarized blob. The key is to match the exact action in the prompt to the tool, command, or concept that performs that action directly. Here, B. One undifferentiated memory: immutable goals, working state, and untrusted evidence share a single context that summarization keeps eroding. is the only option that satisfies the scenario without adding unrelated behavior.
The Question
A research agent works for ten minutes but degrades after forty: repeats searches, forgets rejected hypotheses, and lets early untrusted notes displace the user's constraints. What is the root architectural flaw?
Why B is correct
Every listed symptom — lost constraints, forgotten rejections, untrusted notes gaining authority — is state that needed different lifetimes and trust levels collapsing into one recursively summarized blob. The key is to match the exact action in the prompt to the tool, command, or concept that performs that action directly. Here, B. One undifferentiated memory: immutable goals, working state, and untrusted evidence share a single context that summarization keeps eroding. is the only option that satisfies the scenario without adding unrelated behavior.
Why the other options are wrong
Option A does not match the requirement in the prompt. The correct answer is B because Every listed symptom — lost constraints, forgotten rejections, untrusted notes gaining authority — is state that needed different lifetimes and trust levels collapsing into one recursively summarized blob.
Option C does not match the requirement in the prompt. The correct answer is B because Every listed symptom — lost constraints, forgotten rejections, untrusted notes gaining authority — is state that needed different lifetimes and trust levels collapsing into one recursively summarized blob.
Option D does not match the requirement in the prompt. The correct answer is B because Every listed symptom — lost constraints, forgotten rejections, untrusted notes gaining authority — is state that needed different lifetimes and trust levels collapsing into one recursively summarized blob.
Key idea: System Reasoning
Every question is a production situation an AI engineer interviewer can put to you: a failing endpoint, a cost spike, an agent that loops, an eval that disagrees with users. The best answer is almost always the one that measures or contains the problem before it changes the model or the prompt. If you miss a question, note which habit it tests: decompose before you fix, put the security boundary where the side effect happens, and trust an eval only after you check what it covers. The 12 open-ended questions with answer guides are at aijobprep.app/questions/ai-engineer.html.
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