20 Interview Questions on Retrieval-Augmented

Generation (RAG) with Detailed Answers

May 2025

Contents
1 Introduction 2

2 Questions and Answers 2

2.1 1. What is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)? . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 2. How does RAG differ from traditional language models? . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 3. What are the main components of a RAG system? . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.4 4. What is Dense Passage Retrieval (DPR) in the context of RAG? . . . 2
2.5 5. How does RAG handle out-of-domain queries? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.6 6. What are the advantages of using RAG? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.7 7. What are the limitations of RAG? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.8 8. How can you evaluate the performance of a RAG system? . . . . . . . 3
2.9 9. What role does fine-tuning play in RAG systems? . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.10 10. How does RAG handle long-context inputs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.11 11. Can RAG be used for tasks other than question answering? . . . . . 4
2.12 12. What is the role of the knowledge base in RAG? . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.13 13. How does RAG mitigate hallucinations in language models? . . . . . 4
2.14 14. What are some real-world applications of RAG? . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.15 15. How do you optimize the retriever in a RAG system? . . . . . . . . . 5
2.16 16. What is the difference between parametric and non-parametric memory
in RAG? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.17 17. How does RAG handle multilingual queries? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.18 18. What is the impact of document quality on RAG performance? . . . 5
2.19 19. How can RAG be integrated with existing LLMs? . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.20 20. What future improvements can be expected for RAG systems? . . . . 6

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1 Introduction
This document provides a comprehensive set of 20 interview questions related to Retrieval-
Augmented Generation (RAG), a powerful framework combining retrieval and generation
in natural language processing. Each question is followed by a detailed answer to aid in
understanding and preparation.

2 Questions and Answers

2.1 1. What is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)?
Answer: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a hybrid framework that combines
information retrieval with language generation to improve the performance of large lan-
guage models (LLMs). RAG first retrieves relevant documents or data from an external
knowledge base using a retriever (e.g., Dense Passage Retrieval) based on the input query.
The retrieved information is then passed to a generative model (e.g., a transformer-based
LLM) to produce a contextually informed response. This approach enhances factual
accuracy and reduces hallucination by grounding the generation in external knowledge.

2.2 2. How does RAG differ from traditional language models?

Answer: Traditional language models rely solely on their internal parameters and train-
ing data to generate responses, which can lead to outdated or incorrect information.
RAG, however, integrates a retrieval step that fetches up-to-date or domain-specific in-
formation from an external corpus. This makes RAG more dynamic, as it can incorporate
real-time data, and more accurate, as it grounds responses in verified sources.

2.3 3. What are the main components of a RAG system?

Answer: A RAG system typically consists of:
• Retriever: A model (e.g., BERT-based or DPR) that searches an external knowl-
edge base to find relevant documents.
• Generator: A language model (e.g., BART, T5) that generates the final response
using the retrieved documents and the query.
• Knowledge Base: A corpus of documents or data (e.g., Wikipedia, proprietary
databases) that serves as the source of information.

2.4 4. What is Dense Passage Retrieval (DPR) in the context of RAG?

Answer: Dense Passage Retrieval (DPR) is a retrieval method used in RAG that encodes
queries and documents into dense vector representations using neural networks (e.g.,
BERT). It calculates similarity (e.g., via dot product or cosine similarity) between the
query and document embeddings to retrieve the most relevant passages. DPR is more
effective than traditional sparse retrieval methods (e.g., TF-IDF) for capturing semantic
relationships.

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2.5 5. How does RAG handle out-of-domain queries?
Answer: RAG handles out-of-domain queries by relying on its retriever to fetch rele-
vant documents from a diverse or specialized knowledge base. If the knowledge base is
comprehensive, the retriever can still find useful information. However, performance may
degrade if the knowledge base lacks coverage for the domain. Fine-tuning the retriever
or expanding the knowledge base can mitigate this issue.

2.6 6. What are the advantages of using RAG?

Answer: Advantages of RAG include:
• Improved Accuracy: By grounding responses in retrieved documents, RAG re-
duces hallucinations.
• Up-to-Date Information: RAG can incorporate real-time or frequently updated
data.
• Scalability: It leverages external knowledge bases, reducing the need for retraining
the model.
• Flexibility: RAG can be adapted to various domains by changing the knowledge
base.

2.7 7. What are the limitations of RAG?

Answer: Limitations of RAG include:
• Retrieval Quality: Poor retriever performance can lead to irrelevant or incorrect
documents being used.
• Computational Cost: Retrieval and generation steps increase latency and re-
source usage.
• Knowledge Base Dependency: The systems effectiveness relies on the quality
and coverage of the knowledge base.
• Complexity: RAG systems are harder to implement and optimize than standalone
LLMs.

2.8 8. How can you evaluate the performance of a RAG system?

Answer: RAG systems can be evaluated using:
• Retriever Metrics: Precision@k, Recall@k, Mean Reciprocal Rank (MRR) to
assess document relevance.
• Generator Metrics: BLEU, ROUGE, or BERTScore to evaluate the quality of
generated text.
• End-to-End Metrics: Human evaluation for factual accuracy, coherence, and
relevance.
• Latency and Efficiency: Measure retrieval and generation time to ensure real-
time applicability.

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2.9 9. What role does fine-tuning play in RAG systems?
Answer: Fine-tuning in RAG can improve both the retriever and generator. The re-
triever can be fine-tuned on domain-specific data to better encode queries and docu-
ments, improving retrieval accuracy. The generator can be fine-tuned to better integrate
retrieved documents into coherent responses. Fine-tuning aligns the system with specific
tasks or domains, enhancing overall performance.

2.10 10. How does RAG handle long-context inputs?

Answer: RAG handles long-context inputs by breaking the problem into retrieval and
generation phases. The retriever processes the input query to fetch relevant documents,
which are typically short and focused. The generator then uses these documents as
context, avoiding the need to process excessively long inputs directly. Techniques like
document chunking or hierarchical retrieval can further optimize handling of long con-
texts.

2.11 11. Can RAG be used for tasks other than question answering?
Answer: Yes, RAG can be applied to tasks like summarization, dialogue systems, content
creation, and code generation. For example, in summarization, RAG retrieves relevant
articles and generates a concise summary. In dialogue, it fetches contextually relevant
information to maintain coherent conversations. The flexibility of the knowledge base
and generator makes RAG versatile.

2.12 12. What is the role of the knowledge base in RAG?

Answer: The knowledge base serves as the external source of information that the re-
triever queries. It can be a structured database (e.g., SQL), unstructured text corpus
(e.g., Wikipedia), or proprietary data. The quality, coverage, and freshness of the knowl-
edge base directly impact the accuracy and relevance of RAGs outputs.

2.13 13. How does RAG mitigate hallucinations in language models?

Answer: RAG mitigates hallucinations by grounding the generation process in retrieved
documents. Instead of relying solely on the models internal knowledge, which may be
incomplete or incorrect, RAG uses external, verifiable information. The generator is
conditioned on these documents, reducing the likelihood of fabricating facts.

2.14 14. What are some real-world applications of RAG?

Answer: Real-world applications of RAG include:
• Customer Support: Providing accurate responses using company knowledge
bases.
• Search Engines: Enhancing query responses with relevant web data.
• Education: Generating detailed explanations by retrieving academic resources.
• Healthcare: Answering medical queries using trusted databases like PubMed.

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2.15 15. How do you optimize the retriever in a RAG system?
Answer: To optimize the retriever:
• Fine-Tuning: Train the retriever on task-specific data to improve embedding qual-
ity.
• Indexing: Use efficient indexing techniques (e.g., FAISS) to speed up retrieval.
• Hybrid Retrieval: Combine dense and sparse retrieval methods for better cover-
age.
• Relevance Feedback: Incorporate user feedback to refine document rankings.

2.16 16. What is the difference between parametric and non-parametric

memory in RAG?
Answer: Parametric memory refers to the knowledge stored in the models weights,
learned during training. Non-parametric memory, used in RAG, refers to the external
knowledge base accessed during inference. RAG combines both: the generator uses para-
metric memory for language understanding, while the retriever leverages non-parametric
memory for factual grounding.

2.17 17. How does RAG handle multilingual queries?

Answer: RAG can handle multilingual queries by using a multilingual retriever (e.g.,
mBERT) and a multilingual knowledge base. The retriever encodes queries and docu-
ments in a shared embedding space, allowing cross-lingual retrieval. The generator must
also support the target language. Challenges include ensuring the knowledge base covers
multiple languages and handling language-specific nuances.

2.18 18. What is the impact of document quality on RAG performance?

Answer: Document quality significantly affects RAG performance. High-quality, rele-
vant, and up-to-date documents improve the retrievers ability to provide useful context,
leading to accurate and coherent responses. Poor-quality or outdated documents can
introduce noise, reduce retrieval accuracy, and cause the generator to produce incorrect
or irrelevant outputs.

2.19 19. How can RAG be integrated with existing LLMs?

Answer: RAG can be integrated with existing LLMs by:
• Retriever Addition: Pair the LLM with a retriever like DPR to fetch external
documents.
• Prompt Engineering: Modify the LLMs input to include retrieved documents as
context.
• Fine-Tuning: Adapt the LLM to effectively use retrieved information.
• API Integration: Use APIs to connect the LLM with external knowledge bases.

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2.20 20. What future improvements can be expected for RAG systems?
Answer: Future improvements for RAG may include:
• Better Retrievers: Advances in neural retrieval models for higher accuracy.
• Efficient Architectures: Reducing latency and computational costs.
• Dynamic Knowledge Bases: Real-time updates to keep information current.
• End-to-End Training: Jointly optimizing retriever and generator for better syn-
ergy.
• Multimodal RAG: Incorporating images, videos, or structured data in retrieval
and generation.