Graded Assignment: Graded Quiz: Vector Databases for Recommendation Systems and RAG :Vector Databases for RAG: An Introduction (BM RAG and Agentic AI Professional Certificate) Answers 2025
Question 1
How does a vector DB help a recommendation system?
❌ Optimize SQL queries
❌ Generate new data
✅ Store and retrieve embeddings that represent item features
❌ Store preferences as text
Explanation:
Vector DBs store high-dimensional embeddings that let you find similar items for recommendations.
Question 2
Advantage of vector DBs for RAG:
❌ Real-time streaming
❌ Auto-create augmented prompt
✅ Efficient similarity searches using vector embeddings
❌ Visualization tools
Explanation:
RAG relies on vector search to retrieve the most relevant text chunks for the prompt.
Question 3
How do similarity searches improve recommendations?
❌ Random recommendations
❌ SQL filtering
❌ Storing tabular data
✅ Identify items close in feature space to user preferences
Explanation:
Similarity search finds items similar to what the user likes, improving accuracy.
Question 4
How embedding models + vector DBs work together:
❌ DB creates embeddings
❌ Embedding models visualize data
✅ DB stores embeddings used for similarity search
❌ Embedding models replace DBs
Explanation:
Embedding models create embeddings; vector DBs store and search them.
Question 5
What can you not do with modify in Chroma DB?
❌ Change distance metric
❌ Change collection metadata
❌ Add key-value metadata
✅ Change the collection name
Explanation:
Chroma allows metadata/metric updates—but collection name cannot be modified.
Question 6
Common pitfall in RAG:
✅ Using a different embedding model for query and document embedding
❌ Using vector DBs
❌ Re-embedding data
❌ Choosing good chunk size
Explanation:
Query + document embeddings must use the same model for similarity search to work correctly.
Question 7
Which RAG task is handled outside the vector DB?
❌ Storing embeddings
❌ Retrieving matches
❌ Embedding prompts
✅ Chunking
Explanation:
Chunking happens before storage and is handled by the application layer, not the vector DB.
🧾 Summary Table
| Q No. | Correct Answer | Key Concept |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Store & retrieve embeddings | Vector DB role |
| 2 | Efficient similarity search | RAG benefit |
| 3 | Find related items in vector space | Recommendations |
| 4 | DB stores embeddings | System workflow |
| 5 | Cannot rename collection | Chroma modify limits |
| 6 | Using different embedding models | RAG pitfall |
| 7 | Chunking | Handled outside DB |