AI / Agentic AI Interview Questions
Explain the internal working of a Plan-and-Execute agent's planning phase?
flowchart LR
A[Goal Received] --> B[Task Decomposition]
B --> C[Ordered Step Sequence Generated]
C --> D[Steps Executed Sequentially]
D --> E{Blocked?}
E -->|Yes| B
E -->|No| F[Task Complete]
- The agent receives the overall goal and, before taking any action, generates a full decomposition of that goal into an ordered sequence of steps
- Each step in this initial plan typically corresponds to a specific tool call or sub-task, established upfront rather than decided step-by-step later
- Execution then proceeds through this sequence largely without pausing to re-reason at every step, unlike ReAct's per-step reasoning cycle
- Re-planning is triggered only when something unexpected blocks progress, such as a step failing in a way the original plan didn't account for
This upfront decomposition is what gives Plan-and-Execute its token efficiency on predictable, multi-step tasks, the cost of full re-reasoning is paid once during planning rather than repeatedly during execution.
When does Plan-and-Execute generate its full step sequence?
When is re-planning triggered in this architecture?
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