Prompt Engineering Essentials
Learn prompt engineering by writing real prompts. Start with a single-sentence prompt and work up to a fully-engineered one across nine short labs. Every lab challenges you to compose the prompt yourself, with no templates to copy and no pre-filled answers. By the end you'll have written prompts that use clear instructions, a role, multishot examples, XML structure, and an explicit output format.
Last updated: June 2026
What you'll learn
Labs in this course
9 labs- 1Pro
Write your first prompt
Lab 1 of 9
- 2Pro
Vague vs specific
Lab 2 of 9
- 3Pro
The four elements of a prompt
Lab 3 of 9
- 4Pro
Weak vs strong prompts
Lab 4 of 9
- 5Pro
Clear instructions
Lab 5 of 9
- 6Pro
Add a role
Lab 6 of 9
- 7Pro
Multishot examples
Lab 7 of 9
- 8Pro
XML structure
Lab 8 of 9
- 9Pro
Capstone: output format & before-after
Lab 9 of 9
How labs work
Real workspace
Edit files and watch an Agent work alongside you.
Checkpoints
Automated checks confirm you've nailed each step.
Keep your work
Projects persist so you finish with something to ship.
What students say
This course is meticulously designed, reflecting Elvis's deep expertise and attention to detail. The exercises are relevant, engaging, and challenging, making the learning process both enjoyable and highly effective.
Praveen
Senior Software Engineer at Google
Elvis expertly ties in the latest developments when answering questions, provides pointers to the foremost resources, and shares his experience working with many of the tools and frameworks out there.
Yevgeniy S. Meyer, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist at Gretel
The best prompt engineering course out there.
Taeha
AI Engineer at Marker Inc.
It was clear that Elvis was at the cutting edge of best practices. Not only did we learn about prompting techniques, but all the different tools used across the stack. I've already applied the learnings to R&D at our organization.
Hannah
Director of Clinical Product at Moneta Health
Elvis had great examples to depict the importance of the concepts he was teaching! Kudos to his patience running office hours right after a 2.5 hour non-stop class.
Apoorva
Machine Learning Engineer at Apple
Excellent course.
Joy
Associate Director at Merck