I’m looking for recommendations for an AI prompt engineering course. I want to improve my skills with AI models and need something practical and up-to-date. Has anyone taken a course they found helpful? Would appreciate real experiences or advice before I sign up for anything.
Oh man, “prompt engineering course” really sounds like something I should’ve done before embarrassing myself in front of ChatGPT one too many times. I actually tried a bunch because I had that same “PLEASE just help my prompts not sound like an alien” vibe. The one by LearnPrompting.org was actually super chill, free, updated crazy often—it just dives right into real examples and doesn’t act like prompt writing is secret rocket science. Plus, there’s a Discord for swapping feedback.
If you’ve got cash to burn, DeepLearning.AI has an “OpenAI Prompt Engineering for Developers” short course on Coursera. It’s honestly not too fancy but it’s by Andrew Ng (yeah, ML-famous dude) and is totally beginner-friendly. Not super deep, but a massive improvement over “just guess what the bot will do next.”
And, if you’re okay with a few quirky videos, the YouTube channel “Data Professor” has a series on prompt engineering, and it doesn’t drone on forever. Bonus: you can pause whenever you’re lost (which, for me, is a lot).
Word of warning: skip anything that was last updated before mid-2023, AI moves waaaay too fast for old material. I got burned dropping cash on a course where they were like “Here’s how you use GPT-3…” and I was like, bro, even the OpenAI devs have forgotten about GPT-3.
But real talk, besides these courses, just play around with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whatever, and keep notes on what actually works for you. No substitute for just getting your hands dirty.
So yeah, tldr:
- LearnPrompting.org (free, up-to-date)
- DeepLearning.AI OpenAI course (Coursera, not free)
- Data Professor (YouTube, free, bite-sized)
- Don’t pay for anything outdated
- Experiment on your own and jot down what clicks
Hope you don’t end up yelling at your computer as much as I did.
Adding on to what @stellacadente mentioned (and yeah, I’ve had those “typing like an alien” moments too, so solidarity), if you’re looking for something a bit more hands-on than courses and not just YouTube binging, you might actually want to poke around on Kaggle. Seriously. Not everyone realizes it’s not just for data science competitions; they’ve got notebooks specifically for prompt engineering and working with large language models—real scripts, real outputs, people sharing what works/doesn’t in the comments, and actual upvotes for stuff that gets results! It’s like crowdsourced troubleshooting for AI.
Also, on the “don’t bother with outdated stuff” tip, big AMEN. Seen enough courses still worshipping GPT-3 or, I don’t know, pretending prompt chains are peak 2024 innovation. You want things touching on function calling, advanced context tricks, chaining, and even prompt injections if you really want to flex (and avoid shooting yourself in the digital foot).
If you’re into more of a “theory meets practice” vibe, check out some recent academic papers (arxiv.org is your friend, don’t let the PDF format scare you—it’s all just more elaborate prompt fiddling under the hood). The research world moves even faster than the Udemy crowd can crank out PDFs, and sometimes you’ll find a gem that hasn’t trickled down into beginner courses yet.
Last tip: not every platform needs a course. Reddit’s r/LocalLLaMA and r/PromptEngineering can be goldmines for weird niche tricks (and hilarious fails). Some of the regulars are wayyyyy ahead of whatever standard curriculum is out there.
So yeah, echoing, but veering left: skip boring courses, go where the nerds play, copy stuff, break stuff, and don’t trust anyone charging $100 for “prompt magic secrets.” It’s not magic, it’s mostly trial, error, and occasional meme language.
Let’s get right to the meat: while Kaggle and LearnPrompting.org are great, they both tend to focus on “here’s what’s new!” and trial/error learning, but if you want something that’s both fast, practical, and a touch more structured, consider looking at the Prompt Engineering specialization on FutureLearn. It’s not just regurgitated GPT-3 guides; they touch LLM context windows, multimodality, advanced prompt tactics, and even the biases and safety stuff, which is crucial if you’re taking this seriously.
Pros for this route:
- Clear learning path from basics to advanced.
- Mix of hands-on labs and tiny theory bites (not just walls of text).
- Assignments are evaluated by peers, so you get human feedback.
Cons:
- Not free after the intro period.
- The community discussion is quieter than, say, Reddit or a Discord.
- Less “cutting-edge hack” content than Kaggle or arxiv mining—it’s a touch academic.
Compared to the DeepLearning.AI/Coursera course (good for devs but very OpenAI-centric and, frankly, a bit surface-level after the intro), FutureLearn’s option is more platform-agnostic. It’s also less wild-west than r/PromptEngineering—fewer meme prompts, more focus on reproducible results and safety (which matters if you’re looking at using this stuff in your job).
A few quick tips based on hard-won experience (and lots of prompt-related facepalms):
- Don’t chase “the one template to rule them all.” Every LLM flavor reacts differently, so you need to re-test basics as models change.
- Practice with edge cases and weird instructions. That’s how you spot gaps in your skills before showing your work to others.
- Use the pros from DeepLearning.AI to “speak API,” but use Kaggle/Reddit for real-world oddball scenarios.
If you’re serious about going pro, try blending a course like FutureLearn for structure, and then supplement with the chaos (and genius) of public forums. You’ll dodge a lot of outdated material, spot new tricks, and stay sharp for the next AI model drop.
Downside: None of these will magically solve “why did my prompt just hallucinate a recipe for spaghetti out of a finance doc?” But that’s just the state of LLMs right now: a bit unpredictable, a bit brilliant.
Bottom line: a hybrid approach gets you past the basics without shelling out for “AI prompt whisperer” snake oil.