Lesson 2 — Writing a clear coding prompt

Say exactly what you want

A prompt is the message you send to the assistant. A vague prompt ("write a vowel thing") gets a vague answer. A clear coding prompt has four parts:

• Goal — what the code must do, in one sentence.
• Context — who you are and what you use ("beginner, Python 3.12, standard library only").
• Constraints — the rules: function name, inputs, what to avoid.
• Example — one input and the exact output you expect.

Goal: Write a Python function that counts vowels in a string.
Context: I am a beginner. I use Python 3.12.
Constraints:
- Name it count_vowels(text)
Example: count_vowels("Hello") returns 2

The example is the most useful part: it removes guessing, and later it becomes your first test.

Why it matters: the assistant only knows what you write. Two extra lines of context save ten minutes of fixing the wrong answer.