Mid-level interview question
Two short messages with 10 content tokens become 25 tokens in Llama 3's format. Where do the other 15 come from, and why does it matter?
Model answer
From the template: 9 special markers, 3 role names and 3 blank lines. The text was counted with cl100k_base standing in for Llama 3's tokenizer, so treat it as close, not exact; each marker is exactly one token. Short chats are mostly template. You can't remove those tokens, but every token is billed and prefilled on each call, so make the rest cheap to repeat: static first.
Practise the rest
5 Prompt anatomy questions, 492 in all, each with a model answer. Free.
More Prompt anatomy interview questions
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- A teammate's essay-grading prompt is vague and long. What would you change, and how would you judge each change?