Coding Prompting

Introduction

Coding prompts have their own conventions — types, function signatures, examples, and tests. The pattern is universal across Claude, GPT, Gemini and Copilot.

Beginner analogy: Like writing a great Jira ticket — clear acceptance criteria, examples, edge cases.

Understanding the topic

Core concepts to understand:

• Include language, framework, and library version.
• Provide function signature + types up front.
• Specify error handling + edge cases.
• Ask for tests alongside code.
• End with: 'Return only code, no explanation' for clean output.

Syntax reference

Visual workflow / architecture:

Prompt:
"Write a TypeScript function:
   signature: parseDate(input: string): Date | null
   - return null on invalid input
   - support ISO and YYYY-MM-DD
   - include 3 unit tests with Vitest
   Return code only, no prose."

Real-world use

Most code LLMs (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5, Codestral, Qwen-Coder) follow this same pattern best.

Best practices

• Front-load the signature.
• Show 1 example input/output.
• Ask for tests explicitly — they're cheap insurance.

Hands-on exercise

Interview preparation — practice these questions:

• Q1. Anatomy of a great coding prompt?
• Q2. Why include types?
• Q3. Why ask for tests?
• Q4. How handle large codebases in prompts?