When do you use batch, real-time (online), streaming, or async inference?
Not every prediction needs a low-latency endpoint, and defaulting to one burns money. The signal is matching the serving pattern to the latency and freshness requirement. Here is the decision and when you'd reverse it.
Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Applied AI Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.
Not every prediction needs a low-latency endpoint, and defaulting to one burns money. The signal is matching the serving pattern to the latency and freshness requirement. Here is the decision and when you'd reverse it.
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.