Speculative decoding accelerates generation, and with the right verification rule it leaves the output distribution untouched. What matters is understanding how draft-model, self-drafting (Medusa/EAGLE), and lookahead approaches differ in where the guesses originate, and which of them are still exact.
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Compare speculative decoding variants: draft model, Medusa, EAGLE, and lookahead decoding.
Speculative decoding accelerates generation, and with the right verification rule it leaves the output distribution untouched. What matters is understanding how draft-model, self-drafting (Medusa/EAGLE), and lookahead approaches differ in where the guesses originate, and which of them are still exact.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in real GenAI, LLM, and AI/ML engineering interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.
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