project~240 mindifficulty

Building a Chatbot

A stateful chat interface is the most common way users actually interact with an LLM app.

1

Learn it

Use the Streamlit LLM chat tutorials to build a conversational UI in under 50 lines, storing chat history in session state and streaming tokens as they arrive. Layer in a system persona and, optionally, the RAG pipeline from the previous topic so the bot answers from your documents.

By the end you’ll be able to

  • Maintain conversation history/memory across turns
  • Build a simple chat UI and stream responses

Free resources

2

Practice

Build a Streamlit chatbot with persistent conversation memory and a defined persona, then optionally connect it to your RAG store.

3

Build it — your output

A running chatbot web app with memory that you can deploy to Streamlit Community Cloud for free.

4

Prove it — check yourself

You’re ready to move on when you can honestly say yes to each:

  • Does your bot remember earlier turns in the conversation?
  • Can you stream responses instead of waiting for the full reply?
  • Can you swap the persona via the system prompt?

Do it with AI

Use a free AI tool as your tutor and pair-programmer. Copy a prompt below into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini (for building, try Cursor or Copilot).

The habit: Try it yourself first — a little struggle is where the learning actually happens. Then ask for a hint before the answer — never copy blindly.

  • Understand itClaude / ChatGPT / Gemini

    I'm a beginner learning "Building a Chatbot". Explain it in simple terms with a real-world analogy, then ask me ONE question to check my understanding — don't reveal the answer.

  • PracticeClaude / ChatGPT / Gemini

    Give me 3 short practice problems on "Building a Chatbot" (my goal: maintain conversation history/memory across turns), from easy to hard. Don't include the solutions yet — I'll try them first, then ask you to check.

  • Get unstuckClaude / ChatGPT / Gemini

    I'm stuck on this exercise about "Building a Chatbot": [paste your attempt here]. Give me ONE small hint to move forward — do NOT give me the full solution.

  • Build & reviewCursor / Copilot

    Here is my work for a "Building a Chatbot" task: [paste your code or answer]. Review it: point out what's wrong and WHY, and suggest improvements — but let me make the fixes myself.

  • Prove itClaude / ChatGPT / Gemini

    Quiz me on "Building a Chatbot". Ask me 5 questions one at a time, wait for my answer each time, then tell me if I'm right and briefly why.

My notes