Prompting 101: Tiny Prompts, Big Results

Hey folks! Today we are gonna learn about PROMPTS! If you’re wondering what they are, don’t worry— I’ll explain it in a super simple way. Lets get started 🚀

What is a Prompt?

We all have used ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude. It’s like they have become a part of our daily life they are super smart and can help you write code, do homework, answer questions or even give some insightfull lessons on various things.

But here is a catch they dont do anything unless you ask them.

So, when you say something like:

“What is 2 + 2?”

You are asking a question or giving an instruction.

This Instruction or question is called as Prompt.

Its like giving them an key to start working.

Why Prompts are used?

We use prompts to talk to the AI.

Prompts help the AI know what we want, whether it’s debugging an error, an answer to a question, or a conversation. Without a prompt, the AI would just sit there, doing nothing! So its necessary to give proper structured prompts to

Types of Prompts

There are different ways to talk to AI

1. Alpaca Prompt

   These are very simple prompts.

   Its Like Saying -

    Instruction: Perform arthimetic operations given by user
    Input: 2 + 2
    Response: 4
   

2. INST Prompt

   <s> and </s> – Start and End of a Message [INST] and [/INST] – Instructions from the User <<SYS>> and <</SYS>> – System Rules Model is assigned with what it has to do.

    <s>
    <<SYS>>
    You are a helpful robot who explains things simply.
    <</SYS>>
   
    [INST] What is the taste of chocolate ? [/INST]
    </s>
   

3. ChatML Prompt

   We use special tags to identify who is user and who is AI.

   • System: Tells the AI how to behave (it’s like telling the AI the rules of the game).

   • User: This is you! You ask questions.

   • Assistant: This is the AI answering your question.

      {
        "role": "system", 
        "content": "You are a helpful robot who answers questions as simply as possible."
      },
      {
        "role": "user", 
        "content": "What is 2 + 2?"
      },
      {
        "role": "assistant", 
        "content": "2 + 2 is 4!"
      },

Prompt Styles

1. Zero-shot Prompting

   • What is it?: Asking a question without giving any hints or examples.

   • Example:

     You ask your friend, “What’s the capital of India?”

     Your friend doesn’t get any hints, but they say, “New Delhi!”

2. Few Shot Prompting

   • What is it?: Giving a couple of examples before asking a question.

   • Example:

     You show your friend pictures of a cat, a dog, and a lion and say, “These are all animals. Can you name another animal that is bigger than a cat?”

     Your friend might answer with “elephant!” because you gave them a few examples of animals first.

3. Chain of thought

   • What is it?: Thinking step-by-step to get to an answer.

   • Example:

     You’re trying to decide what to have for lunch. You say:

     You Think, Analyse, Think, Again Analyse then you come to a conclusion i.e. output

     “Hmm, I could have pizza, but I had that yesterday... I could have a sandwich, but I want something warm. Oh, I know! I’ll have soup!”

     You’re walking through your thoughts step by step to make the decision!

4. Self-Consistency Prompting

   • What is it?: Giving several answers and picking the one that makes the most sense or is most common.

   • Example:

     You ask, “What’s the best fruit?”

     Your friend might say “apple,” “banana,” and “orange.” All are fruits, but they’re kind of all different. After thinking for a second, you both agree that “banana” is probably the most common fruit you both eat, so you choose that answer.

5. Instruction Prompting

   • What is it?: Giving clear and simple instructions on what to do.

   • Example:

     Your mom says, “Please, pick up your toys and put them back in the toy box.”

     You know exactly what to do because she gave you a clear instruction!

6. Direct Answer Prompting

   • What is it?: Asking for a short and simple answer, no extra explanation needed.

   • Example:

     You ask, “What’s 5 plus 3?”

     Your friend quickly answers, “8!”

     That’s a direct, simple answer with no explanation needed!

7. Persona-based Prompting

   • What is it?: Asking someone to pretend to be a certain person or character.

   • Example:

     You say, “Pretend you're a doctor! What’s wrong with this teddy bear?”

     Your friend puts on their best “doctor voice” and says, “This teddy bear has a cold! I’ll give it some medicine.”

     Now they are acting like a doctor!

8. Role-Playing Prompting

   • What is it?: Asking someone to act out a specific role or character.

   • Example:

     You say, “Let’s pretend you’re the teacher and I’m the student. You can ask me math questions!”

     Your friend takes on the role of the teacher and asks, “What’s 3 times 4?”

     You both have fun acting out the roles!

9. Contextual Prompting

   • What is it: Giving extra details so the AI understands better.

   • Example:

     Imagine you want to ask your friend if they liked a movie.

     But instead of just saying, “Did you like it?” —

     you say:

     "Remember that movie we watched last night with the talking dog who saved the day? Did you like it?"

     Now your friend knows what you're talking about — that’s context!

     So when we give AI more background info, it gives a better answer, just like your friend would.

10. Multimodal Prompting

    • What is it: Using pictures and words to ask something.

    • Example:

      You show the AI a picture of a cat wearing a silly hat and say:

      “What is this cat doing?”

      The AI sees the picture and replies:

      “This cat looks like it’s going to a fancy tea party! Maybe it’s the guest of honor!”

Now with these examples you must’ve gotten a gist of prompt types and prompt styles which you can use to make AI work for you in an efficient manner.