Same topic, related formats. Practice these next.
Name and describe three distinct patterns for human in the loop approval in an agent workflow. For each, describe the latency/safety tradeoff.
Human-in-the-loop patterns sit at three timeline points: approve before execute, edit and continue, or review after the fact. Pick by action reversibility, not by feel.
Imagine a new assistant booking your travel. You could make them check with you before every single click, which is safe but slow. You could let them book everything and then read the receipts later, which is fast but a booked flight is hard to cancel. Or you could tell them to act on their own for cheap, refundable things and only knock on your door for the big, non-refundable ones. A fourth option is to let them ask for help only when they are unsure. The right choice depends on how easy it is to undo a mistake. Sending money is hard to undo, so check first. Drafting an email is easy to undo, so let them draft and you fix it later. Good systems mix these, not pick one for everything.
Everything you need to truly understand this topic: intuition, mechanics, step by step explanation, code, formulas, and worked example. Click to expand.
Everything you need to truly understand this topic: intuition, mechanics, step by step explanation, code, formulas, and worked example.
Everything important, quickly.
Name the three timeline positions, add escalate on low confidence as the fourth, state reversibility as the selection variable, walk one example each, then close on undo windows and approval fatigue as the production concerns that decide whether the design actually holds up.
Real products, models, and research that use this idea.
What an interviewer would ask next. Try answering before peeking at the approach.
Red flags and common mistakes that signal junior thinking. Click to expand.
Picking one approval pattern for the whole agent. The right design routes each action type to a different gate based on how reversible and how costly that action is.
The night-before-the-interview bullets. Scan these on the way to the call.
Primary sources. Skim if you want the original framing.