Module 02 Knowledge Check
5 questions. Pass mark 4 out of 5. Answer every question before checking the answer key below, then retry after reading the feedback.
1. In a LangGraph workflow, state is best described as…
- A. The chat history only
- B. The shared, explicitly typed data that flows between nodes and is updated by them
- C. The model's memory
- D. A database
2. A node's job is to…
- A. Decide the whole workflow
- B. Take state, do one unit of work, and return an update to state
- C. Call the model only
- D. Store data permanently
3. Why does over-stuffed state become a problem?
- A. Storage cost
- B. Every node can read and write everything, so changes have wide, hard-to-trace effects
- C. It slows the model
- D. Edges break
4. Reaching END should mean…
- A. The model stopped talking
- B. The workflow reached a defined terminal condition
- C. The token budget ran out
- D. An error occurred
5. Two nodes update the same state key on parallel branches. Without a defined reducer this causes…
- A. A clean merge
- B. Ambiguous or lost updates depending on ordering
- C. An immediate crash always
- D. Nothing
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Answer Key and Explanations
Check these only after attempting every question.
1. B - The shared, explicitly typed data that flows between nodes and is updated by them
Declaring state explicitly is what makes the workflow inspectable and testable at each step.
2. B - Take state, do one unit of work, and return an update to state
Small, single-purpose nodes are what make failures localisable and paths testable.
3. B - Every node can read and write everything, so changes have wide, hard-to-trace effects
Wide shared state recreates the debugging problems that explicit orchestration was meant to remove.
4. B - The workflow reached a defined terminal condition
Termination should be a designed state, not an accident of budget or failure.
5. B - Ambiguous or lost updates depending on ordering
Concurrent writes need an explicit combination rule; otherwise correctness depends on scheduling.
Practical Check
Apply this module to your own work: complete the module activity for *State, Nodes, Edges, START and END*, then write one sentence naming what your result shows and one naming what it does not.
Strong Answer Pattern
A strong answer names the task, the evidence used, the check performed, and the remaining limitation. It avoids "proved", "guaranteed", or "always" unless the evidence genuinely supports it.