👉 Retrieval engineering is a critical component of information retrieval systems, focusing on the methods and techniques used to efficiently and accurately fetch relevant documents or items from a large database when a user performs a search. It encompasses the design and optimization of retrieval processes to maximize recall (the ability to find all relevant documents) and precision (the ability to find only relevant documents), while minimizing costs associated with excessive retrieval or irrelevant results. Key elements include query expansion, indexing strategies, ranking algorithms, and relevance feedback mechanisms, all aimed at improving the user's search experience by delivering more accurate and contextually appropriate results.