When would you use a CRF instead of an HMM for sequence labeling, and why?
Both label sequences, but one is generative and one is discriminative, and that gap decides whether you can add overlapping features. Here is the comparison that proves you understand the modeling tradeoff, not merely the acronyms.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in real GenAI, LLM, and AI/ML engineering interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.
Both label sequences, but one is generative and one is discriminative, and that gap decides whether you can add overlapping features. Here is the comparison that proves you understand the modeling tradeoff, not merely the acronyms.
Lead with where the obvious approach breaks, because that is the judgment they are screening for — most candidates jump straight to the happy path and lose the room.
Then walk the failure back through the pipeline in order, naming the one metric the customer's exec sponsor actually cares about before you propose the fix.
