🎯Learn Few-Shot Prompting
Stop pasting examples and hoping. Curate five that actually shift the model — representative, diverse, ordered, and formatted to match — then measure the lift on a task you ship.
Phase 1Why Examples Outperform Explanation
See why examples beat instructions for pattern tasks
Pattern matching beats instruction every time
6 minPattern matching beats instruction every time
Your examples are the smallest, most influential dataset
6 minYour examples are the smallest, most influential dataset
Representative beats clever, every time
7 minRepresentative beats clever, every time
Diversity covers what representativeness misses
7 minDiversity covers what representativeness misses
Phase 2Building a 3-Shot Classifier
Build a 3-shot classifier and stress-test edge cases
Format your examples like the model has to answer
7 minFormat your examples like the model has to answer
Three examples is the sweet spot for most tasks
7 minThree examples is the sweet spot for most tasks
Your edge cases reveal your example gaps
7 minYour edge cases reveal your example gaps
Adversarial inputs need their own example slot
7 minAdversarial inputs need their own example slot
Iterate on examples like you iterate on code
8 minIterate on examples like you iterate on code
Phase 3Order, Bias, and Reasoning Together
Order examples, dodge recency bias, blend with CoT
Ordering Effects in a 3-Shot Classifier
7 minOrdering Effects in a 3-Shot Classifier
Recency Bias in a Long Context
8 minRecency Bias in a Long Context
Few-Shot Plus Chain-of-Thought
7 minFew-Shot Plus Chain-of-Thought
Measuring Lift Over Zero-Shot Honestly
8 minMeasuring Lift Over Zero-Shot Honestly
Phase 4Curate Five Examples for a Real Task
Curate five examples for a task you actually ship
Curate five examples for a real task
8 minCurate five examples for a real task
Frequently asked questions
- What is few-shot prompting and how is it different from zero-shot?
- This is covered in the “Learn Few-Shot Prompting” learning path. Start with daily 5-minute micro-lessons that build from fundamentals to hands-on application.
- How many examples should I include in a few-shot prompt?
- This is covered in the “Learn Few-Shot Prompting” learning path. Start with daily 5-minute micro-lessons that build from fundamentals to hands-on application.
- Does the order of few-shot examples matter?
- This is covered in the “Learn Few-Shot Prompting” learning path. Start with daily 5-minute micro-lessons that build from fundamentals to hands-on application.
- Can I combine few-shot prompting with chain-of-thought?
- This is covered in the “Learn Few-Shot Prompting” learning path. Start with daily 5-minute micro-lessons that build from fundamentals to hands-on application.
- Why do my few-shot examples sometimes hurt performance?
- This is covered in the “Learn Few-Shot Prompting” learning path. Start with daily 5-minute micro-lessons that build from fundamentals to hands-on application.
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