Question 33
Domain 4Situation: During research, the web-search subagent queries three source categories with different outcomes: academic databases return 15 relevant papers, industry reports return “0 results,” and patent databases return “Connection timeout.” When designing error propagation to the coordinator, which approach enables the best recovery decisions? Which approach enables the best recovery decisions?
Correct answer: D
Explanation
A “Connection timeout” is an access failure, so the coordinator can decide whether to retry or switch sources. By contrast, “0 results” is a successful query with no matches, not an error, so it should be treated differently to avoid unnecessary retries and support better recovery decisions.
Why each option is right or wrong
A. Aggregate the results into a single success-percentage metric (e.g., “67% source coverage”) with detailed logs available on demand.
A single percentage hides whether the issue was no matches or an actual access failure.
B. Report both “timeout” and “0 results” as failures requiring coordinator intervention.
Zero results is a successful query outcome, not the same class of problem as timeout.
C. Retry transient failures internally and report only persistent errors.
Internal retries help resilience, but suppressing transient failures removes useful coordinator decision context.
D. Distinguish access failures (timeout) that require a retry decision from valid empty results (“0 results”) that represent successful queries.
Under standard error-handling logic, a timeout is a transport/access failure, not a completed search outcome, so the coordinator should treat it as retryable and may switch sources or back off before reissuing the request. By contrast, a “0 results” response is a successful query with no matches, so it should be propagated as a valid terminal state rather than an exception; collapsing the two would misclassify a non-error as a failure and lead to unnecessary retries and poorer recovery decisions.