Overview
Understand how large language models work under the hood: pre-training objectives, fine-tuning strategies, alignment techniques, and efficient inference. This bootcamp balances theory with hands-on exercises so you can reason about cost, quality, and safety.
Who it's for
- Engineers moving from application layer to model-aware roles
- Researchers entering industry with shipping expectations
- Senior ICs who need credible LLM depth in interviews
What you will learn
Curriculum breakdown, from foundations to portfolio-ready work.
Transformers & training
Mechanics that interviews probe.
- Attention, scaling, and context windows
- Pre-training objectives and data mixtures
- Compute and memory trade-offs at a high level
Fine-tuning & alignment
When and how to specialize models.
- Supervised fine-tuning and instruction tuning
- RLHF and preference optimization (conceptual + practical)
- Evaluation harnesses and red-team basics
Inference & systems
Fast, reliable LLM services.
- Quantization and serving considerations
- Batching, KV cache, and latency
- Capstone: fine-tune or adapt a small model with eval story
Key features
- Hybrid cohort with live Q&A
- Guided readings + implementation labs
- Mentor reviews on experiment write-ups
- Mock interviews on LLM architecture and trade-offs
- Assignments with reference solutions
Projects
Instruction tuning mini-project
Adapt a small open model with a clean dataset and eval set.
Inference benchmark
Compare latency/quality across settings and document findings.
Outcomes
Skills gained
Conceptual and practical depth across training, alignment, and serving.
Job readiness
Answer tough LLM questions with structured reasoning.
Portfolio
Technical write-ups that signal seniority.
Your mentor
Dr. Rohan Iyer
Research Engineer · LLM infrastructure
PhD + 8 years in NLP and large-scale training
Rohan bridges research intuition with production constraints: latency budgets, eval discipline, and honest limitations.
Duration & schedule
9 weeks
12–16 hours
Two live sessions weekly; heavy reading and labs async.
Ready to join the next cohort?
Secure your seat or request the full syllabus. We'll confirm prerequisites and start dates.
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