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BeginnerCore Techniques
Few-Shot Prompting: Complete Guide for Prompt Engineers
Give the model 2–5 examples of your desired input/output format before asking it to handle a new case. Learn when to use it, see a real example, and understand the best practices.
When to Use This Technique
When you need consistent formatting, tone, or structure in outputs. Especially useful for classification, extraction, and structured generation.
Example Prompt
Example 1: Input: 'I love this product!' → Output: Positive
Example 2: Input: 'Terrible experience.' → Output: Negative
Now classify: 'Shipping was fast but the item was broken.'
Pro Tips
- ✓Use diverse examples that cover edge cases
- ✓Keep examples consistent in format
- ✓3–5 examples typically outperforms 1–2
- ✓Examples should represent the actual distribution of inputs
More Practice Prompts
Example 1: Input: 'I love this product!' → Output: Positive
Example 2: Input: 'Terrible experience.' → Output: Negative
Now classify: 'Shipping was fast but the item was broken.'
FAQ
When should I use Few-Shot Prompting?
When you need consistent formatting, tone, or structure in outputs. Especially useful for classification, extraction, and structured generation.
What difficulty level is Few-Shot Prompting?
Few-Shot Prompting is considered Beginner level in the Core Techniques category.
Quick Facts
DifficultyBeginner
CategoryCore Techniques