Interview Bank

How to reason about it · think before answering

1. This looks conceptual but is really asking for an operational test. Reciting 'short-term lives in messages, long-term lives in a vector store' just describes the status quo and gives no signal.
2. Lay out the engineering properties and the boundary draws itself: short-term context dies with the session, ships in full on every request, is billed per token and capped by the window; long-term memory spans sessions, is retrieved and injected rather than always sent, is stored per item and capped by retrieval quality.
3. Give a reusable test — this is the core of the answer. Ask three questions: is it still needed after this session ends, does it expire with time, can retrieval find it again? Three yeses means long-term; a no on the first means it stays short-term. Illustrate: 'the user lives in Shanghai' is long-term, 'the user just asked me to shorten that paragraph to three sentences' is not.
4. Name the common failure: stuffing all long-term memory into the prompt. Two hundred preferences accumulated over six months will both blow the window and drown the model in irrelevance. The value of long-term memory is retrieving the three or four relevant items, not the volume stored.
5. Expect the follow-up on updates and expiry: memories need timestamps and provenance, and a changed preference must overwrite rather than coexist with a contradictory one. Add the deletion angle — long-term memory is the part you must be able to locate and erase when a user asks for their data to be deleted.

分析过程 · 先想清楚再作答

1. 这题看着像概念题，其实考的是你有没有一条可执行的判据。背出「短期在 messages 里、长期在向量库里」只是描述现状，答不出「为什么这条该进长期」就没有区分度。
2. 先把两者的工程属性摆出来，边界自然就清楚了：短期上下文随会话结束作废、全量进请求、按 token 计费、受窗口约束；长期记忆跨会话存在、不进请求而是检索后注入、按条存储、受检索质量约束。
3. 给一条可复用的判据，这是本题的核心：问三句话——跨会话之后还需要吗、会随时间失效吗、能通过检索捞回来吗。三个都是「是」就进长期记忆，第一个是「否」就留在短期。举例说明：用户住上海进长期，用户刚才让我把段落改成三句话留短期。
4. 点出最常见的误用：把长期记忆当上下文一次性全塞进去。用了半年攒两百条偏好，全塞进请求既撑爆窗口，又因为大量不相关记忆干扰模型判断——长期记忆的价值在于按需检索出最相关的三五条，不在于存了多少。
5. 可以预期的追问：长期记忆怎么更新和失效？答要点是记忆要带时间戳和来源，用户改了主意要能覆盖旧记忆而不是并存两条矛盾的；再补一句删除权——用户要求删数据时，长期记忆是必须能定位并整体删掉的那一部分。

How to reason about it · think before answering

1. The discriminator is whether you say on demand. Answering skills are reusable prompts says nothing, because that is equally true of a prompt template.
2. Start with the split: tools fill a capability gap the model cannot cross on its own; skills fill an experience gap where the model can do the task but not the way your team does it.
3. Then the mechanism: a persistent instruction file enters context in full every session, while a skill exposes only name and description until something matches and its body is loaded.
4. Quantify the cost: twenty conventions at six thousand tokens of system prompt bill three hundred thousand tokens over a fifty-turn session, and the attention dilution costs more than the money.
5. Close with the rule of thumb interviewers want: if the guidance applies every single time, it belongs in the persistent instruction file; otherwise make it a skill.
6. Expected follow-up: what about prompt templates? The difference is who chooses. You pick a template; the model picks a skill by reading descriptions.

分析过程 · 先想清楚再作答

1. 这题的区分度在你有没有说出「按需」两个字。只答「skill 是可复用的提示词」的人，等于没答，因为那句话对提示词模板同样成立。
2. 先给分工：工具补的是能力缺口，模型本来做不到的事；技能补的是经验缺口，模型做得到但不知道你们这儿怎么做。这一刀切下去，后面的论证才站得住。
3. 再给机制差异：常驻指令文件每次会话全量进上下文，skill 平时只露 name 与 description，命中才展开正文。前者的成本是固定的，后者的成本是按需的。
4. 接着算代价：二十条规范写满六千 token 的系统提示，五十轮会话要重复计费三十万 token；更贵的是注意力被不相干的规则稀释，做第三件事时被第十七条干扰。
5. 最后给判据，这是面试官真正想听的一句：这条经验是不是每次都用得上？是就写进常驻指令文件，不是就做成 skill。
6. 可预期的追问是「那提示词模板呢」。答案是谁来挑：模板是你手动选的，skill 是模型读着 description 自己选的，触发权在模型手里。