60-second card
Prompt design
A good prompt says the task, the context, the format and who the answer is for.
- Be specific: 'Summarise in 3 bullets for a first-year student.'
- Use a system prompt for the role and rules.
- Ask for structured output (like JSON with named fields) when code will read it.
Example: Weak: 'Explain SQL joins.' Better: 'Explain INNER and LEFT JOIN to a beginner in 5 sentences, with a students/departments example.'
Remember: If a person would need more context, so does the model.
Common mistake: One-word prompts like 'Summarise.' and then blaming the model.