Memory vs context window: what your agent remembers

End-of-lesson check

15 questions · take it digitally for instant feedback at tendril.neural-forge.io/learn/quiz/end-builders-agentic-ai-ai-agent-memory-vs-context-r11a8-teen

1. Which sentence best captures the main idea of 'Memory vs context window: what your agent remembers'?

   1. Agents should always run without limits or oversight
   2. Your agent forgets between sessions unless you give it actual memory — not just a longer context window.
   3. Agents and chatbots are the same thing in every way
   4. Tools and goals are unnecessary for agent design

2. Which of the following is part of 'Some examples'?

   1. Use context for the current task.
   2. Use the most expensive model regardless of fit
   3. Run unbounded retries on any error
   4. Disable safety checks for speed

3. Which of the following is part of 'Heads up'?

   1. Approve all actions automatically
   2. Hide tool calls from the operator
   3. Run unbounded retries on any error
   4. If you keep stuffing context until it forgets the start, you need memory, not a bigger model.

4. Which of the following is part of 'You did it!'?

   1. Your agent has continuity now.
   2. Hide tool calls from the operator
   3. Disable safety checks for speed
   4. Avoid taking any actions in the world

5. What is 'context window' in this context?

   1. A trick to bypass approvals
   2. A reason to skip all logging
   3. A way to disable the agent's tools
   4. A core concept covered in Memory vs context window: what your agent remembers

6. What is 'persistent memory' in this context?

   1. A reason to skip all logging
   2. A core concept covered in Memory vs context window: what your agent remembers
   3. A way to disable the agent's tools
   4. A trick to bypass approvals

7. Which statement best contrasts memory and context?

   1. Context is the live window for one call; memory persists across calls and sessions
   2. There is no practical difference
   3. Both reset every message
   4. Memory is part of the prompt; context is stored in a database

8. Why is it dangerous to give an agent access to your email and calendar without scoped permissions?

   1. It will refuse to work
   2. Scopes only matter for paid accounts
   3. Broad access means a single misstep can send the wrong message or wipe events
   4. Scoped permissions slow the model down

9. What should an agent's trace let you do after a run?

   1. Make the agent run faster next time automatically
   2. Hide what the agent did from the user
   3. Replace the need for any tests
   4. Reconstruct each step, decision, and tool call so you can debug or audit

10. Which signal best tells you an agent is stuck in a runaway loop?

    1. It returns a short summary and stops
    2. It keeps repeating the same tool call with no new progress
    3. It finishes the task in one step
    4. It asks one clarifying question

11. What is the most reliable way to keep an autonomous agent from going off the rails on a long task?

    1. Disable its tools so it can only think
    2. Trust the model to know when to stop
    3. Set a clear goal, a step budget, and review checkpoints
    4. Run it for as many steps as possible without checking in

12. Which budget control most directly prevents runaway costs from an agent loop?

    1. A hard cap on steps, tokens, or dollars per task
    2. A friendly system prompt
    3. A longer context window
    4. A bigger model

13. Which is the best way to think about an agent's 'autonomy level'?

    1. It is a slider from suggestion only, to ask-then-act, to act-then-report, to fully autonomous
    2. It is binary — fully autonomous or not
    3. It depends only on the model size
    4. Autonomy does not affect risk

14. Which is the clearest sign an 'agent' is really just a chatbot in disguise?

    1. It only produces text and never takes actions
    2. It can call a search tool
    3. It can remember last week's conversation
    4. It uses a system prompt

15. An agent that costs $0.04 per task on average will run 10,000 times this month. Roughly what should you budget?

    1. About $400
    2. About $4,000
    3. About $40
    4. About $4