Course

Building AI Apps with the API

You've used AI in a chat window. This course is the bridge to building with it in code. In seven short, developer-focused lessons you'll take apart a single API call, force the model to return clean JSON your code can trust, let it call your functions, stream replies for a snappy UI, engineer what goes in the context window, and design a system that fails safely. No pinned model versions, no framework worship — just the durable ideas behind every AI app, each one drawn as a scene you can poke.

7 lessonsIntermediate47 min

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Course lessons

From chat box to API

The chat window is just one caller of the API. Take a single call apart and see the shape every AI app is built on.

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Structured outputs (JSON)

A friendly paragraph is useless to code. Demand a shape — fields and types — and get back data you can parse with confidence.

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Function / tool calling

The model can't check your database or send an email — but it can ask your code to. Give it functions and it becomes an agent.

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Streaming & latency

A model that thinks for five seconds feels broken. Stream the reply token by token and the same wait feels instant.

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Context engineering

The model only knows what's in front of it. Curating that window — the right facts, in the right budget — is half the job.

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System & app design

The API is one call; a product is everything around it — prompts as config, retries, fallbacks, and a plan for when the model is wrong.

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Putting it together

The whole course in one loop — and the mindset that turns a chat user into a builder.

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Learn it properly — tracked & personalized

Follow the whole course as a guided journey — sequential lessons, progress, streaks and a personalized path, all in the app.

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