Title: Quiz 10 — Adding Agentic and MCP or Retrieval Capabilities
Course: AIINFRA 303: Capstone Project > Section: Week 10 — Adding Agentic and MCP or Retrieval Capabilities

Q: What core problem does the Model Context Protocol (MCP) primarily solve?
- Slow inference speed in large language models
- The need for custom integration code for every model-to-tool pairing (the N × M problem)
- The lack of GPU support in cloud environments
- Insufficient training data for fine-tuning
A: The need for custom integration code for every model-to-tool pairing (the N × M problem)

Q: MCP communicates using JSON-RPC 2.0 and exposes capabilities through three primitives: tools, resources, and prompts.
- True
- False
A: True

Q: In the agent loop taught this week, which sequence correctly represents the flow?
Feedback: Sample/expected answer: Goal → Memory → Perception

Q: In the ReAct pattern, what are the two alternating step types the agent produces, and why does making them explicit help developers?
Feedback: Sample/expected answer: "Thought" (reasoning) and "Action" (tool calls), alternating with "Observation" (tool results); making them explicit makes the agent's decision-making transparent and debuggable, and supports dynamic step-by-step re-planning instead of committing to a rigid upfront plan.

Q: What should you do before connecting a newly built MCP server to a full agent?
- Deploy it directly to production
- Test it interactively with the standalone MCP Inspector
- Skip testing since FastMCP guarantees correctness
- Disable all logging to save tokens
A: Test it interactively with the standalone MCP Inspector

Q: Connecting many MCP servers to an agent has no real downside as long as each server works correctly, since only the tools actually called consume resources.
- True
- False
A: False

Q: Which statement best reflects a documented risk of MCP, correcting the misconception that it is a "safe, closed protocol"?
- MCP servers cannot access credentials or execute code, so there is no security risk
- Because MCP is open, poorly built or malicious servers can pose real risks including malicious code execution, credential theft, and weak authentication
- MCP risk only applies to enterprise deployments, not capstone projects
- MCP eliminates the need for input validation entirely
A: Because MCP is open, poorly built or malicious servers can pose real risks including malicious code execution, credential theft, and weak authentication

Q: Name one guardrail (other than "trust the tool result") that helps address the misconception "the agent will just do the right thing," and briefly explain the failure it guards against.
Feedback: Sample/expected answer: Example answers include: validating/checking tool results before acting on them; requiring human confirmation before consequential/irreversible actions; or scoping tool permissions narrowly. Each guards against agents hallucinating tool calls/parameters or believing a step succeeded when it silently failed.