Refactor and Test LLM Microservices

Overview

As AI applications are built at record speed, many teams are accumulating significant "technical debt," leading to brittle, unpredictable, and expensive systems. "Refactor and Test LLM Microservices" is an intermediate course designed for software developers and ML engineers who want to build production-grade AI applications that last. This course moves beyond notebooks and scripts to instill the software engineering discipline required for robust microservices. You will master Test-Driven Development (TDD), learning to write failing unit tests before implementing new API endpoints to ensure correctness from the start. You will also learn to act on code-review feedback by systematically refactoring complex code, breaking down monolithic functions into clean, readable, and maintainable modules. Through hands-on labs in a VS Code environment, you will refactor a legacy service and build a new, fully tested API endpoint, ensuring your work is not just functional, but also scalable and reliable.

Syllabus

Test-Driven Development for LLM APIs

This module introduces the discipline of Test-Driven Development (TDD) as a crucial practice for building reliable software. You will explore how a test-first approach prevents costly production failures, what the TDD cycle entails, and how to apply it to add a new, fully tested endpoint to an LLM-powered microservice.

Code Refactoring and Quality Improvement

This module focuses on improving the long-term health of a codebase. You will explore why refactoring is essential for managing technical debt and how to methodically improve code by acting on realistic, expert-level feedback. You will also gain hands-on experience in breaking down complex functions to improve readability and maintainability, ultimately transforming professional critique into higher-quality code.