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HarveyAI·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen·Intermediate

IntermediatePrefer not to say
May 2026

Summary

Did a coding round for HarveyAI where the whole thing was RAG implementation in a notebook. Pretty hands-on, no LeetCode stuff, just build something that works.

Questions Asked (1)

Q1

Implement a RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) pipeline in a notebook environment.

System DesignTechnical Trade-offsAPI & Integrations
Author's notes

The whole round was basically this.

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AI HintsAI Generated

Suggested Approach

Start by clarifying the use case and constraints (e.g., document types, query volume, latency needs) since HarveyAI operates in the legal domain where accuracy and citations are critical. Then outline a modular RAG pipeline: ingestion, indexing, retrieval, and generation, explaining each component and the trade-offs you'd make in a notebook environment. Emphasize evaluation and iteration, showing how you'd measure and improve retrieval and generation quality.

Pro tip: In a notebook, use small, representative samples and pre-computed embeddings to iterate quickly, but explicitly call out how you'd scale each component (e.g., vector DB, batch processing) in production. Also, mention that for legal documents, you'd implement citation-aware generation to ensure every claim is traceable to a source.

1. Clarify requirements and constraints

Ask about document types, query patterns, latency, and accuracy requirements. For HarveyAI, highlight the need for high precision, citation, and handling of long legal texts.

2. Design the ingestion and indexing pipeline

Explain how you'd load and preprocess documents (e.g., chunking with overlap, metadata extraction), then generate embeddings and store them in a vector index. Discuss chunking strategies and embedding model choices.

3. Implement retrieval and re-ranking

Describe the retrieval step: embed the query, search the vector index, and optionally re-rank results with a cross-encoder. Mention hybrid search (keyword + vector) for legal terms.

4. Integrate generation with context

Show how to construct a prompt with retrieved chunks and generate an answer using an LLM. Emphasize citation and handling of context window limits.

5. Evaluate and iterate

Outline an evaluation plan: retrieval metrics (recall@k, MRR) and generation metrics (faithfulness, answer relevance). Use a small labeled set and iterate on chunking, models, and prompts.

Key Points to Mention

  • Chunking strategies (e.g., recursive, semantic) and their impact on retrieval quality
  • Embedding model selection (e.g., OpenAI, Cohere, open-source) and trade-offs (cost, latency, accuracy)
  • Vector database options (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate) and when to use each
  • Hybrid retrieval (combining BM25 and dense vectors) for better recall on legal jargon
  • Re-ranking with cross-encoders to improve precision
  • Evaluation metrics and the importance of a golden dataset for iterative improvement
  • Citation-aware generation to ensure answers are grounded and verifiable

AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.