query transformation

Retrieval quality is bounded by the query, and raw user queries are frequently poor for search. The signal is knowing the techniques that rewrite the query ahead of retrieval and which failure each one fixes.

A short question and the passage that answers it sit in different neighborhoods of embedding space. HyDE bridges that gap by embedding a fake answer rather than the question. The signal is understanding why a wrong hypothetical still retrieves the right docs.

A single embedding cannot capture a question with three independent parts. Interviewers want to see you know when to split a query, how to retrieve and recombine per sub-query, and the latency and drift costs that make decomposition a net loss on simple questions.

HyDE produces a fake answer to embed, which helps on vague queries but actively hurts on factual or out-of-domain ones. Interviewers want to hear you name precisely when the hypothetical document misleads retrieval and which multi-draft and hybrid variants recover.