Prompt Engineering Guide: Unlock the Full Potential of LLMs

Prompt engineering is a core skill for using LLM APIs. Well-crafted prompts can boost output quality by an order of magnitude. This guide helps you master the craft.

Prompt Engineering Fundamentals

🎯 Clarity

  • •Use clear, specific language
  • •Avoid ambiguity and vague expressions
  • •Specify the output format explicitly
  • •Provide necessary context

🔧 Structure

  • •Use delimiters to organize content
  • •Order instructions logically
  • •Describe complex tasks step by step
  • •Use numbering or bullet markers

Core Prompt Techniques

1. Role Playing

Let the model play a specific role to get more professional, context-appropriate responses.

You are an experienced data scientist, skilled at explaining complex concepts to non-technical audiences.
Please explain what machine learning is in simple, accessible language.

2. Task Decomposition

Break complex tasks into steps and guide the model to reason progressively.

Please analyze this article following the steps below:
1. First, summarize the main viewpoint (within 50 words)
2. Then, list 3 supporting arguments
3. Next, identify possible logical flaws
4. Finally, provide your evaluation and suggestions

Article content: [Article Content]

3. Few-shot Learning

Provide examples to help the model understand the task pattern.

Classify product reviews as Positive or Negative:

Review: "The product quality is great and shipping was fast"
Label: Positive

Review: "The price is too high and not worth it"
Label: Negative

Review: "Packaging is exquisite, but features are average"
Label: Negative

Review: "${userReview}"
Label:

4. Chain of Thought

Guide the model to show its reasoning process to improve accuracy on complex problems.

Let's think through this step by step:

Question: A store sold 35 apples on day 1. On day 2, it sold twice as many as day 1 plus 10 more. On day 3, it sold half of the total from the first two days. How many apples were sold in total over the three days?

Please show your calculation in detail.

Advanced Prompt Templates

📝 Content Creation Template

# Task: Create ${contentType}

## Background
- Target audience: ${targetAudience}
- Style: ${style}
- Word count: ${wordCount}
- Key points: ${keyPoints}

## Requirements
1. Start with an engaging hook: ${hookType}
2. Body should include ${numPoints} key points
3. Provide concrete examples for each point
4. End with ${endingType}

## Tone and Style
- Tone: ${tone}
- Avoid: ${avoidWords}
- Prefer: ${preferWords}

## Output Format
Please output using the following structure:
[Title]
[Lead] (within 50 words)
[Body]
[Summary]

Start writing:

💻 Code Generation Template

# Code generation task

## Requirements
${requirements}

## Technical Specs
- Programming language: ${language}
- Frameworks/Libraries: ${frameworks}
- Code style: ${codeStyle}

## Constraints
- Performance: ${performance}
- Compatibility: ${compatibility}
- Security: ${security}

## Expected Output
1. Complete code implementation
2. Comments for key parts
3. Usage example
4. Potential optimization suggestions

## Code Quality
- Follow ${language} best practices
- Add error handling
- Consider edge cases
- Code should be maintainable and extensible

Please generate the code:

📊 Data Analysis Template

# Data analysis task

## Data description
${dataDescription}

## Analysis goals
${analysisGoals}

## Analysis steps
1. Data overview
   - Describe basic characteristics of the data
   - Identify data quality issues
   
2. Exploratory analysis
   - Key metrics and statistics
   - Correlation analysis
   - Outlier detection
   
3. Deep-dive analysis
   - ${specificAnalysis}
   - Trend identification
   - Pattern discovery
   
4. Insights summary
   - Major findings
   - Business implications
   - Actionable recommendations

## Output requirements
- Use clear data visualizations
- Provide concrete numeric evidence
- Provide actionable recommendations

Please proceed with the analysis:

Prompt Optimization Techniques

Before vs After Optimization

❌ Before

Write an article about AI

✅ After

Please write an 800-word popular science article on the topic "How AI Changes Daily Life". Target readers: general audience interested in technology. Include 3 concrete application examples and explain the technical principles in plain language.

Common Optimization Directions

  • ✓
    Increase specificity:

    Clarify concrete requirements and expectations

  • ✓
    Provide context:

    Explain background and usage scenarios

  • ✓
    Specify format:

    Make output structure and format explicit

  • ✓
    Set constraints:

    Limit scope to avoid topic drift

Special-scenario Prompt Techniques

🌐 Multilingual Processing

Translate the following Chinese content into English.
Requirements:
1. Maintain the original tone and style
2. Use idiomatic English expressions
3. Translate technical terms using industry-standard terminology
4. Add clarifications when cultural context is necessary

Original: ${chineseText}

Translation:

🔍 Information Extraction

Extract key information from the following text and output in JSON format:

Fields to extract:
- person_name
- company
- position
- contact
- dates
- amounts

Text: ${text}

Output format:
{
  "person_name": [],
  "company": [],
  "position": [],
  "contact": {},
  "dates": [],
  "amounts": []
}

✅ Quality Control

Please conduct a quality review of the following content:

Checklist:
1. Factual accuracy — verify all data and claims
2. Logical consistency — ensure arguments are consistent
3. Language quality — check grammar and clarity
4. Completeness — check for missing critical information

Content: ${content}

Please output:
[Issue List]
1. Issue type: specific description
2. ...

[Improvement Suggestions]
1. ...

[Overall Score] X/10

Prompt Engineering Toolbox

🎭

Role Library

  • Technical expert
  • Creative writer
  • Data analyst
  • Business consultant
  • Education expert
📋

Format Templates

  • JSON output
  • Markdown tables
  • Code blocks
  • List format
  • Dialogue format
🔧

Optimization Techniques

  • Temperature
  • Max tokens / length control
  • Repetition penalty
  • Stop sequences
  • Probabilistic sampling

Prompt Engineering Best Practices

✅ Recommended

  • • Use clear action verbs (analyze, summarize, create)
  • • Provide output examples and format requirements
  • • Handle complex tasks step by step
  • • Set reasonable constraints
  • • Iterate to refine prompts

❌ Avoid

  • • Vague descriptions
  • • Overloading with too many tasks at once
  • • Ignoring context
  • • Excessive negative phrasing
  • • Expecting the model to read your mind

Master Prompt Engineering and Harness AI

LLM APIs provide powerful model capabilities and flexible parameters. Combined with professional prompt engineering, you can fully unlock LLM potential and build outstanding AI applications.

Start Practicing Prompt Engineering