Curriculum

Work through the chapters in order for the recommended path, or jump to any topic that interests you.

Beginner

Core mechanics of prompting — how to structure messages, be specific, and set roles.

1

Basic Prompt Structure

beginner

Messages API formatting · User/assistant roles · System prompts

2 exercises

2

Being Clear and Direct

beginner

Specificity · Eliminating ambiguity · Constraining output

2 exercises· Recommended after: Basic Prompt Structure

3

Assigning Roles

beginner

System prompts for role assignment · Persona adoption · Tone and expertise control

2 exercises· Recommended after: Being Clear and Direct

Intermediate

Level up with XML structuring, output control, chain-of-thought reasoning, and few-shot examples.

4

Separating Data from Instructions

intermediate

XML tags as delimiters · Variable substitution · Data/instruction separation

2 exercises· Recommended after: Assigning Roles

5

Formatting Output & Speaking for Claude

intermediate

Output format control · XML output tags · Response steering

3 exercises· Recommended after: Separating Data from Instructions

6

Precognition (Thinking Step by Step)

intermediate

Chain-of-thought prompting · Thinking tags · Reasoning before answering

2 exercises· Recommended after: Formatting Output & Speaking for Claude

7

Using Examples (Few-Shot Prompting)

intermediate

Few-shot prompting · Example selection · Format consistency through examples

1 exercise· Recommended after: Precognition (Thinking Step by Step)

Advanced

Production-grade techniques: hallucination prevention, complex multi-technique prompts, chaining, and tool use.

8

Avoiding Hallucinations

advanced

Giving Claude an out · Citation-based answers · Evidence gathering · Scratchpad technique

3 exercises· Recommended after: Using Examples (Few-Shot Prompting)

9

Building Complex Prompts

advanced

Multi-technique prompts · Production-grade prompting · Industry-specific applications

4 exercises· Recommended after: Avoiding Hallucinations

10

Chaining Prompts

advanced

Multi-step prompt chains · Output-to-input piping · Task decomposition

1 exercise· Recommended after: Building Complex Prompts

11

Tool Use (Function Calling)

advanced

Tool/function definitions · Structured tool inputs · Tool result handling

1 exercise· Recommended after: Building Complex Prompts

12

Search & Retrieval (RAG)

advanced

RAG patterns · Context injection · Document grounding

1 exercise· Recommended after: Avoiding Hallucinations