@shrav_10: Interviewed another candidate today. I asked him what RAG is. He replied: RAG is a technique that allows an LLM to answ…
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A hiring manager shares a candidate's correct definitions of RAG and fine-tuning, then asks followers to explain when to use one over the other.
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Cached at: 06/28/26, 03:59 AM
Interviewed another candidate today.
I asked him what RAG is. He replied: RAG is a technique that allows an LLM to answer questions using external knowledge instead of relying only on what it learned during training.
Then I asked about fine-tuning. He said: Fine-tuning is the process of training a pre-trained language model on your own dataset so that it learns a new behavior, style, or task.
Then I asked a follow-up:
Since RAG can inject external knowledge and even mimic a user’s persona through retrieved context, why do we still need fine-tuning? When would you choose one over the other?
What would your answer be?
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