CCARF Practice Question

Paper 4 · Question 20

D2 Tool Design & MCP Integration · Paper 4

A research subagent's database query fails partway through an investigation. Which pieces of information belong in the structured error context it returns to the coordinator? (Select 3)

• A.The failure type, such as transient, validation, or permission.
• B.A plain 'no results found' message in place of the error.
• C.Partial results gathered before the failure.
• D.What was attempted, including the query that failed.
• E.No report at all: the subagent should retry silently until the query succeeds.

Show answer & explanations

Correct answer: A, C, D

A: Categorising the failure lets the coordinator make the right retry-or-reroute decision.

B: Reporting an access failure as an empty result conflates two different situations and hides the need for a retry decision.

C: Partial results preserve completed work so the coordinator does not re-run what already succeeded.

D: The attempted query gives the coordinator enough detail to retry intelligently or reformulate the request.

E: Silent retries hide failures from the coordinator, which owns error handling and needs observability into what went wrong.

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