Module 4

Designing a Vector Search System

So far, rebuilding a collection has taken only a few seconds. Once generating embeddings takes hours, you need to get the design right before ingesting your data.

Follow-along code: Module 4 notebook

Overview

Module 3 showed you how to combine dense and sparse retrieval. Now you’ll use those pieces to design a system that can grow beyond a small collection. You’ll decide what to store and embed, see what changes as the collection grows, and choose when to add more machines, when to put a language model on top, and where to run Qdrant. By the end, you’ll have designed a news search system and five questions to use on a system of your own.

Today’s Path

1. Where Design Decisions Live
2. Decide Before You Ingest
3. What Changes as the Collection Grows
4. Growing Past One Machine
5. From Results to an Answer
6. Where It Runs
7. Design Your Own System
8. References and Further Reading