Spring AI for Beginners

Module 16 of 17

Module 16: Knowledge Check

4 min read758 words
What you'll learn
Test your understanding across the whole trackSpot topics worth revisitingReinforce key ideas through active recall

"Test yourself across the whole track. Recalling an answer before checking is how learning turns into knowing."

Level: All levels · Time: ~15 min · Prerequisites: Modules 1–15

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • Test your understanding across the whole track
  • Spot topics worth revisiting
  • Reinforce key ideas through active recall

How to Use This Quiz

Answer all 15 first, then scroll to Answers. Each miss points to the module to revisit.

Try this: Decide your answer before peeking. Hesitation between two options tells you exactly what to review.

The Questions

1. What is Spring AI?

  • A. A new AI model
  • B. Building blocks for adding AI to Java/Spring apps
  • C. A database
  • D. A replacement for Java

2. What is a "bean" in Spring?

  • A. A coffee setting
  • B. An object Spring creates and manages for you
  • C. A type of loop
  • D. A config file

3. Which object do you usually use to send prompts?

  • A. ChatMemory
  • B. ChatClient
  • C. VectorStore
  • D. PromptTemplate

4. Why can't a stateless chat remember your name?

  • A. The model is broken
  • B. Each request is independent — no history is sent
  • C. Java forgets it
  • D. Tokens are too long

5. Roughly what is a token?

  • A. A password
  • B. A small chunk of text (~¾ of a word)
  • C. A Java class
  • D. A whole paragraph

6. Few-shot prompting means…

  • A. Asking many times
  • B. Including a few input→output examples in the prompt
  • C. Using a small model
  • D. Reasoning step by step

7. What does .entity(MyType.class) do?

  • A. Deletes an object
  • B. Parses the model's reply into a typed Java object
  • C. Creates a database
  • D. Sets the temperature

8. What problem does RAG solve?

  • A. Slow Java startup
  • B. Answering from documents the model wasn't trained on
  • C. Memory leaks
  • D. Tokenizing text

9. An embedding is…

  • A. A chat response
  • B. Text turned into meaning-capturing numbers
  • C. A Java annotation
  • D. A prompt template

10. What does QuestionAnswerAdvisor do?

  • A. Manages passwords
  • B. Automatically retrieves context and injects it (one-line RAG)
  • C. Sends emails
  • D. Trains the model

11. What makes a chat model an "agent" in Module 11?

  • A. It's bigger
  • B. It can call tools following the ReAct loop
  • C. It runs offline
  • D. It uses less memory

12. What do @Tool and @ToolParam describe?

  • A. Database tables
  • B. A tool's purpose and its parameters, so the model knows when/how to call it
  • C. Web routes
  • D. Memory size

13. MCP is best described as…

  • A. A Java compiler
  • B. An open standard to connect AI apps to external tools
  • C. A vector database
  • D. A prompt technique

14. Which agentic pattern classifies input then dispatches to a specialized handler?

  • A. Chain
  • B. Routing
  • C. Parallelization
  • D. Evaluator-Optimizer

15. What's the best first step when building an agentic system?

  • A. Build a fully autonomous agent immediately
  • B. Start with the simplest pattern that works
  • C. Use as many tools as possible
  • D. Skip memory

Answers

  1. B — Building blocks for adding AI to Java/Spring apps. (Module 1)
  2. B — An object Spring creates and manages. (Module 2)
  3. BChatClient. (Module 4)
  4. B — Each request is independent. (Module 4)
  5. B — A small chunk of text (~¾ word). (Module 5)
  6. B — A few examples in the prompt. (Module 6)
  7. B — Parses the reply into a typed object. (Module 7)
  8. B — Answering from your documents. (Module 8)
  9. B — Meaning turned into numbers. (Module 9)
  10. B — One-line RAG via retrieval + injection. (Module 10)
  11. B — It calls tools via the ReAct loop. (Module 11)
  12. B — The tool's purpose and parameters. (Module 11)
  13. B — An open standard for external tools. (Module 13)
  14. B — Routing. (Module 14)
  15. B — Start with the simplest pattern that works. (Module 14)

How did you do?

  • 13–15: Outstanding — you understand the whole track.
  • 8–12: Strong — revisit the modules behind any misses.
  • 0–7: Re-skim the group summaries and try again.

Key Takeaway: These 15 questions span the entire track — Spring basics, ChatClient, tokens and memory, prompting, RAG, tools, MCP, and agentic patterns. If you can answer them, you understand how to build real AI apps with Spring AI. Any misses point straight to the module worth another look.

Part of "Spring AI for Beginners." Adapted from Microsoft's open Spring AI curriculum (MIT License).