Module 8: The Capstone Final Project
1. Module Introduction: The Capstone Final Project
Overview
This is the final module of the guide. Here you integrate EVERYTHING you've learned (vectors, embeddings, similarity, ANN, search, RAG) into a complete project: designing an end-to-end RAG system from scratch.
Estimated time: 3-4 hours
Module Objectives
- Design a complete RAG system (architecture, components, flows)
- Make informed decisions (chunking, embeddings, vector DB, ranking)
- Estimate costs and latencies (budget, SLAs)
- Identify the trade-offs (precision vs latency vs cost)
- Present a technical solution (a design document)
Structure: A single project divided into stages
This module does NOT have 7-8 small capsules. It's 1 capstone project divided into 6 stages that you complete in sequence:
| Stage | Activity | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Project introduction | 20 min |
| 02 | Requirements and constraints | 30 min |
| 03 | Architecture design | 60 min |
| 04 | Technical decisions | 60 min |
| 05 | Cost estimation | 30 min |
| 06 | The final document | 40 min |
The project: A RAG system for a university
Context:
A university with 100K academic documents (papers, theses, study guides) wants a chatbot for students and researchers.
Requirements:
- Conceptual queries ("papers about machine learning")
- Exact queries ("John Smith's 2020 thesis")
- Search by author, date, department
- Suggest related papers (diversity)
- Latency < 2 seconds
- Budget: $2000/month
The final deliverable
By the end of the module, you'll have a Technical Design Document that includes:
- The complete architecture (a diagram + the components)
- Justified technical decisions (chunking, embeddings, vector DB, ranking)
- A cost estimate (setup, queries/month)
- A trade-off analysis (precision vs latency vs cost)
- An evaluation plan (metrics, an evaluation set)
- Limitations and mitigations
How should you work through this module?
Option 1: Independently (recommended)
Read each stage, make your decisions, document your design. At the end, compare with the suggested solution.
Option 2: Guided
Read a stage → look at the suggested solution → move on to the next stage.
Option 3: As a team
Work with colleagues, debate the decisions, present a final solution.
Next capsule: 02-requirements-and-constraints.md — A detailed analysis of the case.