CONTROL STRUCTURES AND DECISION ROUTING

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING • What are nodes and edges? ◦ Answer: nodes are units of work, and edges are one-way arrows showing which node may run next. • Why does backoff help when retrying? ◦ Answer: the growing pause gives a struggling service time to recover and avoids overloading it. • When should a decision be deterministic? ◦ Answer: when it protects money, safety, privacy, or anything irreversible, or when the right answer is known in advance. • What is a hybrid harness? ◦ Answer: one where safety-critical steps are hard-coded and exploratory steps are left to the model within guardrails. • Why is retrying a payment risky? ◦ Answer: it might charge twice unless the tool is idempotent.