AI / Agentic AI Interview Questions
When would you choose an SDK/microservice integration over MCP for tool access?
MCP's protocol-driven orchestration is most valuable when dynamic tool discovery and flexible, standardized coordination across many different tools and agents is a priority.
- If the main goal is simplicity and integrating with existing systems you already control, exposing agents as plain SDKs or microservices removes the protocol overhead entirely
- SDK/microservice integration is a better fit for a small, stable set of tools that rarely change and don't need to be dynamically discovered
- MCP earns its complexity specifically when you need reusable, swappable tool providers across many different agent clients
In short, MCP trades some simplicity for interoperability and dynamic orchestration, so if you don't actually need that flexibility, a direct SDK or microservice integration is often the simpler and more maintainable choice.
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