Building Reliable LLM Systems is a comprehensive course for AI practitioners looking to move beyond basic models and create production-grade applications. While getting an LLM to generate text is easy, ensuring a consistently accurate, relevant, and trustworthy output is a significant engineering challenge. This course provides a systematic framework for tackling the entire lifecycle of LLM reliability.
You will start by learning to quantitatively evaluate model performance using a suite of lexical and semantic metrics, such as BLEU, ROUGE-L, and cosine similarity. You’ll dive deep into debugging, using log analysis and data manipulation to uncover the root causes of critical failures, such as hallucinations, by correlating them with retrieval system performance. The course emphasizes statistical rigor, teaching you to design and analyze A/B tests, apply hypothesis testing, and calculate confidence intervals to prove the significance of your optimizations. Finally, you’ll optimize the foundational data layers, learning to tune SQL queries and vector search parameters to achieve the perfect balance between recall and latency.
This module lays the groundwork for quantitative Large Language Mode (LLM) evaluation. Learners will discover why relying on intuition to judge model performance is unsustainable and explore the foundational metrics used to create automated, objective evaluation systems. We will cover both lexical similarity metrics (like BLEU and ROUGE-L) that assess text structure and semantic metrics (like cosine similarity) that capture meaning. By the end of this module, learners will have the conceptual understanding and practical code to build their first automated evaluation script.
涵盖的内容
8个视频3篇阅读材料3个作业3个非评分实验室
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8个视频•总计44分钟
How to Compute Lexical Metrics: BLEU & ROUGE-L in Python?•6分钟
How to Compute Semantic Similarity with Embeddings?•6分钟
Why Guess When You Can Know? The Case of the "Better" Prompt•5分钟
The Language of Experimentation: Hypotheses, P-Values, and Power•5分钟
Running the Numbers: A/B Test Analysis in Python•7分钟
From Report to Action: The Optimization Loop•3分钟
Case Study: Benchmarking a Sentiment Analyzer•6分钟
Scripting Your First Evaluation Report•6分钟
3篇阅读材料•总计17分钟
A Guide to LLM Evaluation: Lexical and Semantic Metrics•5分钟
Building Your First Automated Evaluation Script•60分钟
Statistical Significance Testing•60分钟
Planning Your Optimization Strategy•8分钟
Analyze Logs: Fix LLM Hallucinations
第 2 单元•小时 后完成
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When a production chatbot starts giving incorrect answers, how do you find the problem and fix it? This module equips AI practitioners, ML engineers, and data analysts with the essential skills for debugging production LLMs. Go beyond theory and learn the systematic, data-driven workflow that professionals use to solve the critical problem of AI hallucinations. You will be equipped to transition from merely observing AI failures to expertly diagnosing and resolving them.
涵盖的内容
5个视频3篇阅读材料3个作业2个非评分实验室
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5个视频•总计29分钟
Why Logs Matter: The Air Canada Case?•6分钟
Calculating Retention in Pandas•6分钟
Why RAG Fails: The Root of Hallucination?•6分钟
Correlating Errors with Retrieval in Pandas•6分钟
Visualizing the Proof in Matplotlib•5分钟
3篇阅读材料•总计28分钟
Anatomy of a Log File•8分钟
The Engineering Brief: From Analysis to Action•10分钟
Authoring the Engineering Brief•10分钟
3个作业•总计40分钟
Knowledge Check: Retention Metrics•5分钟
Knowledge Check: Communicating Findings•5分钟
LLM Diagnostics Report•30分钟
2个非评分实验室•总计120分钟
Lab 1: Segmenting Users & Finding the Drop•60分钟
Lab 2: Proving the Root Cause•60分钟
Evaluate LLMs: Test and Prove Significance
第 3 单元•小时 后完成
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When making high-stakes deployment decisions, a simple accuracy score is not enough. This module equips you with the statistical methods to rigorously validate LLM performance improvements. By the end of this module, you will be able to move beyond subjective "it seems better" evaluations to confidently state, "we can prove it's better," ensuring every deployment decision is backed by sound statistical evidence.
涵盖的内容
5个视频2篇阅读材料3个作业3个非评分实验室
显示有关单元内容的信息
5个视频•总计30分钟
Why Single Scores Lie•8分钟
Calculating Wilson Intervals in Python•4分钟
Why Gut Feelings Fail in A/B Testing•6分钟
Running a Chi-Square Test in Python•6分钟
Visualizing Confidence with Matplotlib•5分钟
2篇阅读材料•总计14分钟
Core Concepts: Confidence and Significance•8分钟
Storytelling with Statistical Visuals•6分钟
3个作业•总计40分钟
Confidence Intervals Quiz•5分钟
Communicating Results Quiz•5分钟
LLM Evaluation Report•30分钟
3个非评分实验室•总计110分钟
Lab 1: Quantifying Model Accuracy•20分钟
Lab 2: Validating a Model Improvement•30分钟
Lab 3: Create a Comparison Chart•60分钟
Optimize SQL and Vector Search Parameters
第 4 单元•小时 后完成
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In the world of large-scale AI, slow queries and inefficient search can bring a system to its knees. This module provides the critical skills to prevent that, focusing on practical database and vector search optimization techniques. By the end of this module, you will be equipped to systematically analyze and optimize production retrieval systems, ensuring your AI applications are not only powerful but also fast and reliable.
涵盖的内容
4个视频3篇阅读材料4个作业3个非评分实验室
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4个视频•总计26分钟
From Inefficient to Optimized•7分钟
The Recall vs. Latency Trade-Off•5分钟
Tuning an HNSW Index•8分钟
Beyond One-Off Tests: The Need for Continuous Benchmarking•5分钟
3篇阅读材料•总计25分钟
Secure and Efficient Query Patterns•10分钟
Understanding Vector Search Parameters•10分钟
Core Metrics of a Benchmarking Framework•5分钟
4个作业•总计85分钟
SQL Security and Patterns•15分钟
Parameter Tuning Scenarios Quiz•15分钟
Interpreting Benchmark Results•10分钟
Submit Your Performance Optimization Report•45分钟
3个非评分实验室•总计140分钟
Identifying Slowest Queries using Parameterized SQL•20分钟
Tune HNSW Parameters for Recall and Latency•60分钟
Create an Automated Benchmarking Suite•60分钟
End-to-End LLM Performance Audit
第 5 单元•小时 后完成
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In this module, you will conduct an end-to-end performance audit comparing two LLM variants using an A/B test dataset. You will implement a pipeline to calculate key performance metrics, including lexical and semantic similarity, and use statistical A/B testing to validate model improvements. The project culminates in a comprehensive report where you will correlate hallucination rates with retrieval logs and synthesize your findings into data-driven recommendations for stakeholders, guiding the decision for a production-level rollout in a customer support application.
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Is Building Reliable LLM Systems suitable for AI practitioners without a statistics background?
The course assumes basic familiarity with statistics. It includes practical, applied lessons on confidence intervals and hypothesis testing, and offers step-by-step examples so that practitioners with modest statistical knowledge can follow along. Consider a short statistics refresher if you are new to hypothesis testing.
What tools and data will I work with in Building Reliable LLM Systems?
You will write evaluation scripts in Python, analyze logs and segmented datasets, run A/B test analyses, use SQL for data retrieval, and evaluate vector-search parameters (e.g., HNSW) commonly used with vector databases. No proprietary tools are required.
How does this course prepare me for production LLM work?
The course focuses on measurable, repeatable engineering practices: automated evaluation pipelines, statistical experiment design, log-driven debugging, and data-layer tuning. These skills help you prioritize fixes and validate improvements in real production settings.
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
What will I get if I subscribe to this Certificate?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Certificate, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.