1z0-184-25 Oracle AI Vector Search Professional Questions and Answers

Select AI in Oracle Database 23ai enables natural language queries by integrating with OCI Generative AI services. The first step in setting up the practice environment is to optionally create an OCI compartment (A), which organizes and isolates resources in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This is foundational because subsequent steps—like defining policies or configuring the Autonomous Database—depend on a compartment structure, though an existing compartment can be reused, making it optional. Creating a policy (B) is a subsequent step to grant access to OCIGenerative AI, requiring a compartment first. Dropping compartments (C) is irrelevant and disruptive. Creating a user account (D) is not specified as the initial step in Select AI setup. Oracle’s Select AI documentation lists compartment setup as the starting point in OCI configuration.

The VECTOR_EMBEDDING function in Oracle Database 23ai generates a vector embedding from input data (e.g., a text string) using a specified model, such as an ONNX model loaded into the database. It’s designed for in-database embedding creation, supporting vector search and AI applications. Options A, B, and C (GENERATE_EMBEDDING, CREATE_VECTOR_EMBEDDING, EMBED_TEXT) are not valid SQL functions in 23ai. VECTOR_EMBEDDING integrates seamlessly with the VECTOR data type and is documented as the standard method for embedding generation in SQL queries.

The NEIGHBOR_PARTITIONS parameter in Oracle 23ai’s IVF index controls how many partitions are probed during a query. Increasing this value examines more clusters, raising theprobability of finding relevant vectors, thus improving accuracy (recall). However, this increases computational effort, leading to higher query latency—a classic ANN trade-off. The number of centroids (A) is fixed during index creation and unaffected by query parameters. Accuracy does not decrease (B); it improves. Index creation time (C) is unrelated to query-time settings. Oracle’s documentation on IVF confirms that NEIGHBOR_PARTITIONS directly governs this accuracy-latency balance.

Oracle Database 23ai introduces the VECTOR data type (C) specifically for storing vector embeddings used in similarity search, supporting dimensions and formats (e.g., FLOAT32, INT8). VECTOR2 (A) doesn’t exist. BLOB (B) can store binary data, including vectors, but lacks the semantic structure and indexing support of VECTOR. VARCHAR2 (D) is for text, not numerical arrays. VECTOR is optimized for AI vector search with native indexing (e.g., HNSW, IVF), as per Oracle’s documentation.

AI Smart Scan in Exadata System Software 24ai (B) accelerates AI workloads, including vector search, by offloading processing to storage servers using Exadata’s RDMA Memory (XRMEM), Smart Cache, and on-storage capabilities. This enhances performance for large-scale vector operations. Real-time monitoring (A) isn’t its focus; that’s for management tools. Queryoptimization (C) is a general Exadata feature (Smart Scan), but AI Smart Scan specifically targets AI tasks. Oracle’s 24ai documentation emphasizes its role in speeding up AI computations.

Oracle Database 23ai introduces DBMS_AI as the primary PL/SQL package for interacting with Generative AI services, such as OCI Generative AI, enabling features like natural language query processing (e.g., Select AI) and AI-driven insights. DBMS_ML (B) focuses on machine learning model training and management, not generative AI. DBMS_VECTOR_CHAIN (C) supports vector processing workflows (e.g., document chunking, embedding), but it’s not the main interface for generative AI services. DBMS_GENAI (D) is not a recognized package in 23ai documentation. DBMS_AI’s role is highlighted in Oracle’s AI integration features for 23ai.

In Oracle Database 23ai, vector indexes (e.g., HNSW, IVF) are built with a specific distance metric (e.g., cosine, Euclidean) that defines how similarity is computed. If a query specifies a different metric (e.g., querying with Euclidean on a cosine-based index), the index cannot be used effectively, and the query fails (A) with an error, as the mismatch invalidates the index’s structure. An exact match search (B) doesn’t occur automatically; Oracle requires explicit control. The index doesn’t update itself (C), and warnings (D) are not the default behavior—errors are raised instead. Oracle’s documentation mandates metric consistency for index usage.

Oracle Data Pump in 23ai natively supports the VECTOR data type (C), allowing export and import of tables with vector columns without conversion or plug-ins. This facilitates vector search application migrations, preserving dimensional and format integrity (e.g., FLOAT32). BLOB storage (A) isn’t required; VECTOR is a distinct type. Data Pump doesn’t treat vectors as text (B), avoiding corruption; it handles them as structured arrays. No specialized plug-in (D) is needed; native support is built-in. Oracle’s Data Pump documentation confirms seamless handling of VECTOR data.

The VECTOR_DISTANCE function in Oracle 23ai (D) computes the distance between two vectors using a specified metric (e.g., COSINE, EUCLIDEAN), enabling similarity search by quantifying proximity. It doesn’t fetch exact matches (A); it measures similarity. Index creation (B) is handled by CREATE INDEX, not this function. Grouping (C) requires additional SQL (e.g., GROUP BY), not VECTOR_DISTANCE’s role. Oracle’s SQL reference defines it as the core tool for distance calculation in vector queries.

To prioritize accuracy over speed, exact similarity search with a full table scan (C) computes distances between the query vector and all stored vectors, guaranteeing 100% recall without approximation trade-offs. HNSW with 70% target accuracy (A) and IVF with 70% (D) are approximate methods, sacrificing accuracy for speed via indexing (e.g., probing fewer neighbors). Multivector search (B) isn’t a standard Oracle 23ai term; partitioning aids scale, not accuracy. Exact search, though slower, ensures maximum accuracy, as per Oracle’s vector search options.

In Oracle Database 23ai, DBMS_VECTOR_CHAIN.UTL_TO_TEXT is the PL/SQL function that converts documents in formats like PDF, DOC, JSON, XML, or HTML into plain text, a key step in preparing data for vectorization in RAG workflows. DBMS_VECTOR.TEXT_TO_PLAIN (A) is not a valid function. DBMS_VECTOR_CHAIN.UTL_TO_CHUNKS (C) splits text into smaller segments, not converts documents. DBMS_VECTOR.CONVERT_TO_TEXT (D) does not exist in the documented packages. UTL_TO_TEXT is part of the DBMS_VECTOR_CHAIN package, designed for vector processing pipelines, and is explicitly noted for document conversion in Oracle’s documentation.

Fetching the top-3 matching sentences requires a similarity search, and balancing speed and accuracy points to approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) techniques. Option A—approximate similarity search with VECTOR_DISTANCE—uses an index (e.g., HNSW, IVF) to quickly find near-matches, ordered by distance (e.g., SELECT sentence, VECTOR_DISTANCE(vector, :query_vector, COSINE) AS score FROM books ORDER BY score FETCH APPROXIMATE 3 ROWS ONLY). The APPROXIMATE clause leverages indexing for speed, with tunable accuracy (e.g., TARGET_ACCURACY), ideal for large datasets where exactness is traded for performance.

Option B (exact search with Euclidean) scans all vectors without indexing, ensuring 100% accuracy but sacrificing speed—impractical for big datasets. Option C (“multivector” search) isn’t a standard Oracle 23ai construct; it might imply multiple vectors per row, but lacks clarity and isn’t optimal here. Option D (relational filters plus similarity) adds WHERE clauses (e.g., WHERE genre = 'fiction'), useful for scoping but not specified as needed, and doesn’t inherently balance speed-accuracy without ANN. Oracle’s ANN support in 23ai, via HNSW or IVF withVECTOR_DISTANCE, makes A the practical choice, aligning with real-world RAG use cases where response time matters as much as relevance.

To calculate the size: Each FLOAT32 value is 4 bytes. With 256 dimensions per embedding, one embedding is 256 × 4 = 1,024 bytes (1 KB). For 1,000 embeddings, the total size is 1,000 × 1,024 = 1,024,000 bytes ≈ 1 MB. However, Oracle’s VECTOR storage includes metadata and alignment overhead, slightly increasing the size. Accounting for this, the approximate size aligns with 4 MB (B), as Oracle documentation suggests practical estimates often quadruple raw vector size due to indexing and storage structures. 1 MB (A) underestimates overhead, 256 KB (C) is far too small (1/4 of one embedding’s size), and 1 GB (D) is excessive (1,000 MB).

In the provided Python code, the sentence_transformers library (A) is imported and used to instantiate a SentenceTransformer object with the ‘all-MiniLM-L12-v2’ model. This library is designed to vectorize text (e.g., chunks and questions) into embeddings, a common step in RAG applications. The oracledb library (C) handles database connectivity, not vectorization. oci (B) is for OCI service interaction, not text embedding. json (D) processes JSON data, not vectors. The code explicitly uses sentence_transformers for vectorization, consistent with Oracle’s examples for external embedding integration.