Design a RAG system that supports both fresh operational data and slower-changing reference docs.

Instruction: Explain how you would combine hot data and cold knowledge in one retrieval experience.

Context: Assesses whether the candidate can design a practical architecture and explain the main tradeoffs. Explain how you would combine hot data and cold knowledge in one retrieval experience.

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I would use two knowledge paths with a shared answer contract. Operational data is fresh, volatile, and often best accessed through APIs, databases, or near-real-time indexes. Reference docs are slower-changing and fit classic document retrieval well. Trying to force both into one index usually creates avoidable freshness and cost problems.

So I would keep a fast...

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