Multi-Agent Challenges

Introduction

Hands-on multi-agent designs — each pushes a different muscle: coordination, debate, swarm, hand-off, supervisor.

Beginner tip: implement them ALL with the same supervisor + specialist + critic template; you'll see the variance clearly.

Understanding the topic

Core concepts:

• Supervisor + Researcher + Writer.
• Coder + Tester + Critic on a small repo.
• Debate: two agents argue, third judges.
• Swarm of search agents with hand-offs.
• Marketing crew: copywriter + designer + scheduler.
• Sales agent + research agent for cold outreach.
• Customer support: router + 3 specialists + escalation.
• Document QA with extractor + answerer + cite-checker.
• Game playing: planner + executor + critic.
• Real-time pair programmer: navigator + driver.

Syntax reference

Visual workflow / architecture:

┌──────────────┐
│ Supervisor   │  routes tasks
└──┬───────┬───┘
   │       │
   ▼       ▼
┌──────┐ ┌──────┐
│ Plan │ │ Code │  specialists
└──┬───┘ └──┬───┘
   │        │
   ▼        ▼
┌──────────────┐
│   Critic     │  reviews output
└──────┬───────┘
       ▼
   Aggregator → Final Answer

Real-world use

Standard at MetaGPT, AutoGen, CrewAI hackathons; common interview prompts.

Best practices

• Build with one framework consistently.
• Add an aggregator EVERY time.

Common mistakes

• Mixing 3 frameworks — debug chaos.

Hands-on exercise

Interview preparation — practice these questions:

• Q1. When use debate over hand-off?
• Q2. Three signs a multi-agent design is over-engineered.
• Q3. Scenario: agents loop blaming each other. Two fixes?