Prompt Engineering Essentials
Practical techniques to get better, more reliable answers from AI models.
Inspired by learning material from OpenAI
Prompt engineering is the skill of asking AI models the right way to get great results.
Be specific
Vague prompts get vague answers. State the task, context, format, and audience.
> Instead of: 'Write about dogs.' > Try: 'Write a 100-word friendly intro about caring for a new puppy, for first-time owners.'
Give examples (few-shot)
Show the model one or two examples of the output you want. Models are excellent at pattern-matching.
Ask for steps
For reasoning tasks, ask the model to 'think step by step.' This often improves accuracy.
Set a role
'You are an expert editor...' primes the model to respond with the right tone and depth.
Iterate
Treat prompting as a conversation. Refine based on what you get back.
Key takeaways
- Specific prompts beat vague ones.
- Examples and step-by-step instructions boost quality.
- Iterate to dial in the result.