When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate
There are 3 modules in this course
Benchmark & Optimize LLM App Performance is a hands-on journey from “it works” to “it flies.” You’ll start by treating speed and cost as product features-defining a baseline with the right metrics (p50/p95 latency, tokens/sec, throughput, determinism, cost per task) and building a lightweight benchmarking harness you can rerun on every change. Next, you’ll learn to hunt bottlenecks across the stack-network, model, prompt, and post-processing-using practical patterns that cut tokens without cutting quality, plus caching strategies for embeddings, RAG, and tool calls. Then you’ll run A/B/C experiments to compare models and prompts on the same dataset, interpret results with simple stats, and choose a winner confidently. Finally, you’ll harden for production with concurrency limits, queues, timeouts, fallbacks, and a 30-day optimization playbook. Expect reusable templates, clear checklists, and realistic demos designed for busy developers and product builders who want measurable gains-not hype.
This course is designed for machine learning engineers, AI developers, data scientists, and product engineers who want to optimize and scale LLM-based applications for production environments. It’s also ideal for backend engineers and DevOps professionals aiming to enhance system performance, reduce latency, and improve cost-efficiency in AI deployments. Additionally, product managers and technical leads overseeing AI-powered systems will benefit from the practical insights provided, helping them to drive improvements in app performance and ensure that their LLM models deliver reliable, high-quality results at scale.
This course requires basic knowledge of Python or JavaScript, familiarity with REST APIs, and a high-level understanding of how Large Language Models (LLMs) function. These skills will help you effectively engage with the course content, optimize performance, and implement solutions.
By the end of this course, you'll have the skills to optimize LLM performance, tackle real-world bottlenecks, and implement efficient, scalable AI systems. You'll be ready to apply these techniques confidently, making your AI solutions faster, more reliable, and production-ready!
This module establishes why performance is a product feature, not a backend afterthought. We connect latency, cost, and answer quality to user-perceived speed (p50 vs p95, jitter) and trust. You’ll define a minimal metric set-latency, throughput, tokens/sec, determinism, and win-rate-then build a lightweight benchmarking harness that runs a small eval set, logs prompts/outputs, and exports clean CSVs. By the end, you’ll have a reproducible baseline you can rerun on every change.
What's included
4 videos2 readings1 peer review
Show info about module content
4 videos•Total 26 minutes
Welcome to Benchmarking LLM Apps•2 minutes
Metrics That Matter: Latency, Throughput & Token Efficiency•7 minutes
Building a Minimal Benchmark Harness (Design Walkthrough)•9 minutes
Run Your First Baseline & Export the Data•8 minutes
2 readings•Total 10 minutes
Welcome to the Course: Course Overview•5 minutes
Evaluation Best Practices (OpenAI Docs)•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 25 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Baseline or Bust: Your First Reproducible Benchmark•25 minutes
Finding & Fixing Bottlenecks: Prompt, Model, and System
Module 2•1 hour to complete
Module details
In this module, you'll trace where time actually goes: network hops, model inference, prompt bloat, and post-processing. You’ll learn practical prompt patterns that cut tokens without cutting quality, plus schema-first I/O that improves stability and parsing. We’ll add caching strategies for embeddings, RAG retrievals, and tool calls, including cache keys and invalidation rules to avoid stale answers. Expect clear heuristics for cold vs warm paths and a simple checklist to shave seconds-not just milliseconds.
What's included
3 videos1 reading1 peer review
Show info about module content
3 videos•Total 22 minutes
Designing Reliable API Calls for LLM Apps•6 minutes
Rate Limits, Caching & Token Budgeting•7 minutes
Building a Resilient Backend for LLM APIs•8 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
OpenAI API Reference: Error Handling & Rate Limits•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 25 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Backend Reliability Challenge: Handle It Smart•25 minutes
Experimentation at Scale & the Performance Playbook
Module 3•2 hours to complete
Module details
The final module turns tuning into a disciplined workflow. You’ll run A/B/C tests across model tiers and prompt variants on the same dataset to compare latency, cost per task, and quality with simple stats - then pick a winner. We’ll cover safe scaling: concurrency limits, queues, backpressure, retries, timeouts, and graceful degradation/fallbacks. You’ll leave with a 30-day optimization plan and a production playbook that keeps your app fast, affordable, and reliable after launch.
Coursera brings together a diverse network of subject matter experts who have demonstrated their expertise through professional industry experience or strong academic backgrounds. These instructors design and teach courses that make practical, career-relevant skills accessible to learners worldwide.
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 Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, 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.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.