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How do you search for an exact word in a vector database?

A deceptively short interview question that's really a trap: embeddings cannot do exact match, and the interviewer knows it. What to actually turn on (payload full-text indexes, sparse vectors, metadata filters) in the vector DBs you already run.

Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Forward Deployed Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.

A deceptively short interview question that's really a trap: embeddings cannot do exact match, and the interviewer knows it. What to actually turn on (payload full-text indexes, sparse vectors, metadata filters) in the vector DBs you already run.

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