U2xAI
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Interview prep

Quality, Cost & Token Economics Interview Questions

8 subtopics, 200 questions. All 200 carry a written answer.

Success metrics for AI products

  • What is the difference between a model metric and a product metric? Give an example of each.
  • Define the north star metric for an AI writing assistant and defend it.
  • Why is usage a weak success metric for an AI feature?
25 questions · 25 answered

Leading vs lagging indicators for AI

  • Give three leading indicators of AI feature health and the lagging metric each predicts.
  • Why do lagging metrics fail you specifically in AI products?
  • Describe the leading indicators you would watch in the first 48 hours after an AI launch.
25 questions · 25 answered

Quality metrics: accuracy vs usefulness vs trust

  • Define accuracy, usefulness and trust as three distinct measurable properties.
  • Give an example of an output that is accurate but not useful.
  • Give an example of a product that is useful despite being frequently wrong.
25 questions · 25 answered

Eval design for product teams

  • What makes an eval product-relevant rather than research-relevant?
  • Design an eval for a feature that drafts email replies.
  • How do you decide between automated evals and human review?
25 questions · 25 answered

Cost modeling and unit economics

  • Build the cost-per-interaction model for a feature with a 2,000-token prompt and a 500-token response.
  • What cost drivers exist for an AI feature beyond model tokens?
  • Explain how a RAG pipeline's cost structure differs from a single model call.
25 questions · 25 answered

Latency budgets and UX tradeoffs

  • What is a latency budget and how would you allocate one across a RAG pipeline?
  • Why do you set latency targets at the 95th percentile rather than the mean?
  • Describe how streaming changes perceived latency without changing actual latency.
25 questions · 25 answered

Pricing AI products: seat, usage, outcome

  • Compare seat-based, usage-based and outcome-based pricing for an AI product.
  • Why does seat-based pricing break when AI reduces the number of seats needed?
  • Design a pricing model for an AI feature with high variable cost and unpredictable usage.
25 questions · 25 answered

Measuring ROI and business impact

  • How do you build the ROI case for an AI feature before it ships?
  • What is the difference between time saved and value created?
  • Model the annual ROI of a support agent that deflects 30 percent of tickets.
25 questions · 25 answered