Guardrails And Safety easy
You stream LLM responses to the browser over SSE and must add a safety classifier on the output. Product wants the first token to appear quickly. Which approach best balances safety and latency?
- A Run the classifier only on the user's input, since output checks would add too much latency.
- B Classify the stream in small buffered chunks, accepting tens to hundreds of ms of added delay.
- C Stream tokens unfiltered and run the classifier asynchronously after the response is complete.
- D Wait for the full response, classify it once, then send it all, so nothing unsafe ever leaks.
Answer: B. Classify the stream in small buffered chunks, accepting tens to hundreds of ms of added delay.
An output classifier in the stream path **adds tens to hundreds of milliseconds**, and chunked buffering keeps that cost small while checking text before users see it. Classifying after completion (C) is tempting for speed but means unsafe text has already been shown. Full buffering (D) is the right call when responses are short or the content is high-risk enough to justify the wait.
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