In this lesson, "What Makes a Good Prompt?", you will deepen your understanding of prompt engineering by focusing on a single idea and applying it with concrete examples. Even though this is a text-only course, you are encouraged to copy the example prompts into your favourite LLM and experiment.
1Concept overview
Start by writing down how you would explain this idea to a colleague who has never heard of prompt engineering. Keep it concrete—avoid buzzwords.
Then, compare your explanation with what you see in this lesson and the surrounding lessons. Where do they line up? Where are you still fuzzy?
2Apply it with a simple example
Pick a small, low-stakes task (for example, rewriting a short paragraph, summarizing an email, or generating three title ideas). Design a prompt that uses the idea from this lesson. Run it in your LLM, inspect the output, and iterate 2–3 times.
Your goal is not to be perfect. Your goal is to build intuition for how this part of prompt engineering behaves in practice.
Key Takeaways
Every lesson in this course is an invitation to experiment. Reading is the first step; turning the idea into a live prompt is what makes it stick.
Try These Prompts
Put these prompt engineering concepts into practice with our beginner-friendly prompts:
Fix Common Issues
Having trouble with your prompts? These common issues and their solutions will help:
Continue Learning
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need programming experience to learn prompt engineering?
No, prompt engineering is accessible to everyone. While some advanced techniques require understanding AI concepts, you can start creating effective prompts with just basic writing skills. This course is designed for beginners and builds up gradually.
Which AI tool should I start with?
We recommend starting with ChatGPT (free tier available) or Claude (generous free tier). Both are excellent for learning prompt engineering fundamentals. You can try Gemini later once you understand the basics. The techniques you learn work across all major AI platforms.
How long does it take to become good at prompt engineering?
Most people see significant improvements within 1-2 weeks of consistent practice. The basics can be learned quickly, but mastery comes from experimentation and iteration. Focus on understanding why techniques work rather than memorizing templates.
Can I use these techniques for work?
Absolutely! Prompt engineering is becoming an essential skill across many industries. Companies are hiring prompt engineers, and effective prompting can significantly boost productivity in content creation, analysis, coding, and many other fields.
What if the AI gives me unexpected results?
Unexpected results are part of the learning process! When this happens, analyze what went wrong: Was your instruction unclear? Did you provide enough context? Did you give good examples? Each iteration teaches you something new about how AI interprets your prompts.