Outcome
Design prompts that are versioned, parseable, defensive, and easy to test.
Foundations · Days 8-13
Prompt Engineering
Learn prompt design as software design: message roles, few-shot examples, persona boundaries, templating, output parsers, and prompt injection defense.
Foundation 8 subtopics 6 daily blocks
Practice builds
Prompt version registryPrompt injection test benchJSON parser with repair path
What to learn
System vs user vs assistant message design
Few-shot examples, role prompting, and persona design
Chain-of-thought, ReAct, and reflection patterns
XML and Markdown structuring for reliable parsing
Prompt templating and variable injection
Prompt versioning: treating prompts like code
Output parsers and graceful failure handling
Prompt injection defense at the prompt layer
Daily study plan
Day 8: Rewrite one messy prompt into system, developer, and user responsibilities.
Day 9: Add few-shot examples and compare output reliability.
Day 10: Structure outputs with XML or Markdown boundaries and parse them.
Day 11: Build a prompt template with typed variables and escaping rules.
Day 12: Add prompt versions and record sample outputs as regression fixtures.
Day 13: Try prompt injection examples and harden the instruction hierarchy.