Week 06 — Hybrid search + reranking (light week)¶

At a glance

Phase 2: RAG + Evals · Starts: Mon 02 Nov 2026 · Planned: 11h 00m · Light week

Build: Capstone: hybrid retrieval (BM25 + dense + metadata filters) with cross-encoder reranking

By day¶

System Design · 30 min · SQL vs NoSQL choice matrix: access patterns, transactions, secondary indexes — for 3 capstone entities → Databases: SQL vs NoSQL, storage engines w06-sd-1
DSA · 15 min · Median of Two Sorted Arrays (binary search on partition) → Binary search (incl. on answer) · resource w06-dsa-1
Python · 15 min · Rep: Hypothesis property test for the chunker (no text lost, chunk size bounds) → Testing: pytest, fixtures, Hypothesis, testcontainers w06-py-1
Communication · 20 min · Grammar: Punctuation and style: commas, dashes, semicolons → Week 06 drills · day 1 w06-comm-1

Agentic AI · 40 min · Hybrid search: BM25 + dense fusion (RRF vs weighted), metadata pre/post-filtering trade-offs → Hybrid search & reranking w06-ai-1
DSA · 20 min · Reverse Linked List + Merge Two Sorted Lists → Linked list · resource w06-dsa-2
Communication · 20 min · Vocabulary: Verb-noun collocations (make a case, raise a concern) → Week 06 drills · day 2 w06-comm-2

DSA · 15 min · Linked List Cycle (Floyd) → Linked list · resource w06-dsa-3
Architecture · 30 min · DDD strategic: subdomains (core/supporting/generic), bounded contexts, context map for the ops domain (Learning DDD, Khononov) → DDD strategic: subdomains, bounded contexts, context maps w06-arch-1
Python · 15 min · Rep: Unit of Work context manager wrapping a Postgres transaction → Architecture patterns in Python (repository, UoW, message bus) · resource w06-py-2
Communication · 20 min · Speaking drill: Shadowing practice 1 → Week 06 drills · day 3 w06-comm-3

Agentic AI · 40 min · Rerankers: bi-encoder vs cross-encoder vs LLM reranking — read Pinecone series and pick one for the capstone → Hybrid search & reranking · resource w06-ai-2
Java/Spring AI · 20 min · Spring AI RetrievalAugmentationAdvisor / QuestionAnswerAdvisor with filter expressions → RAG with Spring AI & pgvector w06-java-1
Communication · 20 min · Idioms & phrasal verbs: Phrasal verbs in meetings: bring up, follow up, wrap up → Week 06 drills · day 4 w06-comm-4

System Design · 30 min · Replication: single-leader, multi-leader, leaderless; replication lag anomalies (read-your-writes, monotonic reads) → Replication · resource w06-sd-2
DSA · 15 min · Reorder List → Linked list · resource w06-dsa-4
Python · 10 min · Rep: src layout + pyproject entry points; build a wheel with uv build → Packaging, project layout & monorepos · resource w06-py-3
Communication · 20 min · Writing: Tightening paragraphs → Week 06 drills · day 5 w06-comm-5

Agentic AI · 75 min · Capstone build: add Postgres full-text (or pg_search) BM25 leg + RRF fusion + cross-encoder rerank; compare hit rate@5 vs dense-only on 30 queries → Hybrid search & reranking w06-ai-3
DSA · 20 min · Remove Nth Node From End of List → Linked list · resource w06-dsa-5
Java/Spring AI · 20 min · Spring Boot 4 + Testcontainers dev services for pgvector in local runs → Spring Boot 4 & Spring Framework 7 w06-java-2
Communication · 20 min · Record & shadow: Shadowing practice 1 → Week 06 drills · day 6 w06-comm-6

System Design · 30 min · Written design: enterprise RAG system — ingestion, ACL-aware retrieval, hybrid search, reranking, eval, freshness (short 2-page version) → Design an enterprise RAG system w06-sd-3
Architecture · 20 min · Write ADR 006 for capstone: bounded contexts — Incident, Knowledge, Ticketing — and their integration style → DDD strategic: subdomains, bounded contexts, context maps · resource w06-arch-2
Staff+ · 20 min · Artifact: capstone design doc v1 (docs/log/design-doc-capstone.md) — send to one peer/AI reviewer for critique → Design docs & RFCs that get approved w06-staff-1
Communication · 20 min · Soft skills + weekly review: Storytelling basics: context, conflict, resolution → Week 06 drills · day 7 w06-comm-7
Review · 40 min · Light-week retro + flashcards: hybrid search, RRF, rerankers, replication anomalies → Hybrid search & reranking w06-rev-1