Title: Quiz 12 — Multi-Agent Orchestration and Handoffs
Course: AIINFRA 300: Agentic AI & the Model Context Protocol (MCP) > Section: Week 12 — Multi-Agent Orchestration and Handoffs

Q: In the supervisor (manager) pattern, what does the top-level agent do with the user's request?
- Ignores it and waits for a sub-agent to claim it
- Decomposes it into subtasks, delegates to specialized sub-agents, and aggregates the results
- Forwards the entire request unmodified to a single random agent
- Executes it entirely itself without delegation
A: Decomposes it into subtasks, delegates to specialized sub-agents, and aggregates the results

Q: When a manager agent calls a specialist "as a tool" rather than performing a handoff, the manager retains control of the conversation.
- True
- False
A: True

Q: What is the key difference between a handoff and calling a sub-agent as a tool?
- Handoffs are only possible in Python; tool-calls work in any language
- A handoff transfers the task and conversation history/control to another agent, while a tool-call retains control with the caller
- Tool-calls always cost more tokens than handoffs
- There is no meaningful difference — the terms are interchangeable
A: A handoff transfers the task and conversation history/control to another agent, while a tool-call retains control with the caller

Q: In the OpenAI Agents SDK, what hook lets developers observe control transfers when a handoff occurs?
Feedback: Sample/expected answer: `on_handoff`

Q: What does the Claude Agent SDK's orchestrator receive back when it spawns a subagent?
- The subagent's full token-by-token reasoning trace
- Only the final result
- A copy of the orchestrator's own system prompt
- Nothing — subagents cannot return values
A: Only the final result

Q: A2A (Agent2Agent) uses Agent Cards for capability discovery and Tasks for delegated work.
- True
- False
A: True

Q: What happened to IBM/Cisco's ACP (Agent Communication Protocol) in August 2025?
- It was banned by the Linux Foundation
- It merged into A2A
- It became the exclusive standard, replacing A2A
- It was rebranded as [AGENTS.md](http://AGENTS.md)
A: It merged into A2A

Q: Why can adding more agents to a system degrade performance instead of improving it?
Feedback: Sample/expected answer: Because reliability compounds (multiplies) across chained agents — each agent's individual error rate multiplies with the others, and added agents without disciplined delegation also increase communication overhead, so the overall system can become less reliable, not more.