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Core
Multi-Agent Orchestration
When a task is too big or varied for one agent, an orchestrator decomposes it and delegates subtasks to focused sub-agents, each with its own clean context and tools, then synthesizes the results. The main benefit is context isolation (each sub-agent stays focused and within its window) plus parallelism and specialization. The costs are coordination overhead, latency, and error propagation, so you use multiple agents only when the task genuinely needs it. Applied-AI interviews probe it because multi-agent designs are common and easy to over-apply.
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TAUGHT IN THESE COURSES
This concept is a reference. These lessons put it in sequence, with what comes before and after it.
Agent Engineering·More than one agentSign in13mThe two reasons to use more than one agentMulti-agent designs are usually adopted for reasons that do not survive examination. Two hold up, both are about context rather than intelligence, and knowing which one you are invoking tells you how to build it.Agent Engineering·More than one agentSign in14mThe two patterns that account for most of the valueOrchestrator-and-specialist and critic-and-refiner cover nearly every multi-agent system worth building. This lesson is how each works, the design decisions inside them, and why free-form agent conversation is not a third option.Agent Engineering·More than one agentSign in13mWhere coordination costs more than it savesMulti-agent systems have a point past which adding agents makes things worse, and it arrives earlier than people expect. This lesson covers the four costs that grow with agent count and the ways a system stalls without anything reporting a failure.
RELATED CONCEPTS
PRACTICE THIS IN REAL QUESTIONS
RAG & Agent System DesignWhen do you use a multi-agent system, and what orchestration patterns and pitfalls matter?→RAG & Agent System DesignWhat are sub-agents, and how does an orchestrator delegate to them effectively?→RAG & Agent System DesignHow do agents communicate and coordinate in a multi-agent system?→RAG & Agent System DesignWhat protocols govern how agents hand off work, and what makes multi-agent coordination break?→RAG & Agent System DesignWhen do you build an agent instead of a single LLM call, and how do you keep a multi-step agent reliable?→RAG & Agent System DesignWhat is the Plan-and-Execute agent pattern, and how does it compare to ReAct?→
COMPANIES THAT ASSUME THIS