Prerequisites

The LLM Zoomcamp does not require any prior machine-learning or AI background. It is a course for developers and engineers who want to build LLM-powered applications.

For general expectations about zoomcamp time commitment, see Before You Start.

Required skills

  • Comfortable programming. You do not need ten years of experience, but you should be able to write code, read someone else’s code, and connect different pieces together. The course uses Python; if you know another language well you can pick up the Python you need in a few days.
  • Comfortable with the command line and Git basics.
  • Docker installed and runnable. Docker is treated as a prerequisite. The course does not teach Docker; if you need to learn it, the Data Engineering Zoomcamp and Machine Learning Zoomcamp include Docker introductions.

You do not need

  • Prior machine-learning experience. The course does not look under the hood of LLMs.
  • Advanced math.
  • A GPU. The course uses hosted LLMs (OpenAI, Groq, and others) and a normal laptop is enough.
  • Prior cloud experience. You can complete the entire course locally if you want to.
  • A degree.

Time commitment

  • About 10 hours per week during the cohort. Past cohorts’ homework data shows roughly 4 hours of lectures plus 3 hours of homework for module 1, and around 10 hours for vector search.
  • Two weeks of focused project work plus one week for peer review.

The earliest you can receive your certificate is after the project peer-review deadline.

Adapting to your background

  • Software developers and backend engineers: this is the most direct path. You already have the engineering skills; the course adds the AI patterns.
  • Data engineers: AI engineering is largely data engineering in disguise (knowledge bases, ingestion, indexing, reliable connections). Your skills transfer directly.
  • Data scientists who already work with LLMs at their job: you will fill in gaps on the engineering and evaluation side.
  • Career switchers: if you can already program, you can take this course. If you cannot, build programming basics first; the course is very challenging without them.

For environment and tooling choices, see Environment Setup.