RAG Academy
Retrieval that answers from your data, with receipts.
Chunking, embeddings, hybrid search, reranking and citation. Most RAG systems fail at retrieval, not generation — so this academy spends most of its time there, and every result is measured.
Duration
6 weeks
Content
46 hours
Lessons
54
Level
Intermediate
Students
980
Certified
611
RIVA mentors you through every lesson, lab and assessment in this academy — and knows where you got stuck last time.
What you’ll be able to do
Written as capabilities, not topics. If you can’t do these at the end, the academy didn’t work.
- Design a chunking strategy from the document, not from a default
- Combine dense and keyword retrieval, then rerank
- Ground every answer in a citation a reader can check
- Measure retrieval with recall@k and answer faithfulness
Skills you'll build
Tools you'll use
5 modules · 20 lessons
About 12 hours of content. Expand a module to see every lesson.
01Why retrieval failsDiagnosing the layer that actually breaks, before touching generation.3 lessons · 1h
- VideoThe anatomy of a wrong answerNine times in ten the model never saw the right chunk.15 min
- VideoRecall@k, precision and what to instrument first18 min
- LabLab: build a failing RAG on purpose, then measure it30 min
02ChunkingSplitting a document the way its author structured it.4 lessons · 1h
- VideoFixed, recursive and semantic splitting17 min
- VideoStructure-aware chunking for tables, code and contracts20 min
- VideoOverlap, parent-child and the small-to-big pattern16 min
- LabLab: chunk a 400-page policy document35 min
03SearchDense, sparse, hybrid — and the reranker that fixes both.6 lessons · 2h
- VideoEmbeddings: choosing a model and a dimension18 min
- VideoBM25 and why keyword search refuses to die14 min
- VideoHybrid fusion with reciprocal rank16 min
- VideoCross-encoder rerankingThe single highest-leverage upgrade in most RAG stacks.15 min
- LabLab: hybrid + rerank on pgvector40 min
- QuizCheckpoint quiz10 min
04Grounded generationAnswers a reader can check, and a refusal when they can't.4 lessons · 1h
- VideoCitation formats that survive rendering14 min
- VideoRefusing when retrieval came back empty12 min
- VideoFaithfulness scoring with RAGAS18 min
- LabLab: citation-grounded answering35 min
05CapstoneAn enterprise knowledge assistant, measured end to end.3 lessons · 6h
- VideoArchitecture review16 min
- LiveLive build session with a mentor60 min
- ProjectCapstone: grounded knowledge assistantAssessed on retrieval metrics and citation faithfulness, not on demo polish.300 min
Hands-on labs
Hybrid retrieval with reranking
Combine BM25 and vector search with reciprocal rank fusion, then rerank the top candidates and measure recall@k before and after.
60 min · Intermediate · runs in the browser
Projects you can ship
Clinical Discharge Summary Assistant
Draft a discharge summary from a patient's encounter notes, with every clinical claim cited back to the source note and anything uncertain escalated to a clinician rather than guessed.
Healthcare · 28h · Professional
Retail Catalogue Copilot
Merchandisers ask for products in plain language — 'waterproof, under ₹3,000, in stock in Pune' — and get filtered, ranked results with the reasoning shown.
Retail · 20h · Associate
Insurance Claims Triage Agent
Read a first-notice-of-loss packet, classify severity, pull the relevant policy clauses, and route — with a written justification the adjuster can argue with.
Insurance · 30h · Expert
Predictive Maintenance Copilot
Correlate sensor anomalies with maintenance history and the equipment manual, then hand a technician a ranked checklist for a machine that hasn't failed yet.
Manufacturing · 26h · Professional
Contract Clause Intelligence
Compare an incoming contract against the company's standard positions and surface every deviation, ranked by risk, with the exact language that differs.
Legal · 24h · Professional
Wealth Advisory Briefing Generator
Produce a compliant pre-meeting briefing for a relationship manager: portfolio position, relevant market moves, and talking points that stay the right side of advice.
Finance · 20h · Associate
Store Operations Assistant
A shop-floor assistant that answers process questions from the operations manual and files the exception when the answer is 'this needs a manager'.
Retail · 14h · Foundation
On completion
ReveloSoft Certified Professional
You design systems other engineers build on, and you can defend the design under pressure. Evaluation, cost and failure behaviour are part of your answer, not an afterthought.
120-minute assessment · pass mark 80% · QR-verifiable credential
- Hold the Associate certificate
- Complete three Professional-level academies
- Pass the case-study and system-design assessment
- Ship an enterprise project with an evaluation suite
- Pass a technical review with a ReveloSoft mentor