Forem: Gm Aravind

What is Docker?

Gm Aravind — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 12:56:45 +0000

Before learning about Docker. Let’s go back in time to when we didn’t have Docker. Now, let’s say you have a small web app that you created, which is 200 MB and deployed on a server that has 1 GB of storage. Then, the whole server is only used for serving your small web app. Which means the 800 MB is lying free. You can’t use that free storage. Which means we are wasting the server resources. We are not utilizing the server Resources efficiently. To solve this particular issue, we created Hypervisor.

What is a hypervisor?

A Hypervisor is a software that lets us run multiple operating systems on a single machine in isolation. By using this Hypervisor, we can use the machine fully. We can efficiently utilize the CPU, memory and Storage of our machine. There are many benefits of using the hypervisor like speed, security, and flexibility. Each operating system runs inside a VM.

What role does Docker play?

Now, Docker is open-source software that is written in the Go language which lets developers like you and me build, run and deploy software without installing or updating any packages on our local devices using containers. Unlike VMs, Docker containers don’t need a full OS. Containers use the local host OS, which makes it lightweight and fast.

It solves a famous problem “Works on my machine.”

Let's say your friend developed a small web app which is built using the latest Node.js version and he shared the project with you, but you still have old version of Node.js. The application won’t run on your device and your friend says it works on my machine!

Docker Images, Dockerfile, and Docker Hub

Docker solves this exact issue by packing all the dependencies required to run project in a container image. Yes, literally an image is all it takes to get that project your friend has built. But, before we download, your friend has to create a Docker image and to create an image he has to write a Docker file which will contain instructions to build the application and upload this image to Docker Hub.

Now, you first have to download the image. Where will you download that from? From Docker Hub. It is where you will find all the images of different dependencies and projects. Anyone can upload an image to Hub.

Docker Engine

Now, once you download the image, you want to run it. To run it, we use Docker Engine. It is the core component that lets you build and run containers on your local machine.

After this, the project will run on your machine as it runs on your friend's machine.

How to Learn Prompt Engineering

Gm Aravind — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 07:15:28 +0000

Let’s start with the question of what prompt engineering is and why we should learn it.

What is Prompt Engineering and Why Should We Learn It?

Prompt engineering is the art and science of crafting instructions and constraints with appropriate context that improve the output from the Large Language Models (LLMs).

Generally, when I want to ask something, I write like a Google query. However, after learning these techniques, my outputs are much better. It doesn’t look AI-generated. They are well-crafted outputs with good accuracy.

The power of prompt engineering is underrated.

When I first started learning prompt engineering, there were many techniques like

Zero-shot — Just asking directly without examples.

Few-shot — asking directly with examples.

Chain of thought — asking AI to think step by step.

ReAct — Thinks first about the question, plans to act and observes the results until the output is good enough.

It first looked confusing with all these terms. When I started learning more about each technique in depth and tried it in practice, I began to understand when and why to use each one. Honestly, the results after learning these techniques are amazing. The outputs of my prompts don’t look generic, they are giving more realistic outputs that I haven’t seen before.

These techniques have research papers backing them, showing drastic improvements compared to normal prompt results.

Resources for learning prompt engineering

These resources are arranged from beginner to advanced levels. Feel free to skip to your appropriate level:

Beginner to Intermediate

AI Engineering Academy — Prompt Engineering

OpenAI — Prompt Engineering Guide

Nebius Academy — AI-Assisted Programming

Intermediate to Advanced

DeepLearning.AI — ChatGPT Prompt Engineering

Cohere LLM University

Google — Prompting Essentials Certificate

Comprehensive Guide

Prompt Engineering Guide

In conclusion: Start writing simple prompts like Zero-shot and move to advanced techniques when you feel it is necessary to use them.

What is Git and GitHub?

Gm Aravind — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 08:42:49 +0000

Okay, let’s start with Git.

Git is a software that is used to track changes in a project. Git Is a Version Control System. Now, What is a Version Control System?

Let’s say that you came up with a project idea and you started coding it. Now, you started building it, and your project’s basic features are working, so you tried to add more features. Well, in this process, let’s say you broke the code and now it suddenly stopped working, and now you wish you could go back in time to when it was working. What will you do now?

Well Don’t worry, this is the exact problem Git is solving. Git is like a History Book, where it stores all the changes that you made from time to time in your project and brings it back if you need it. But there are a few conditions, like you have to pass a command in the terminal, so that it stores the changes.

Best Resources to Learn Git will be listed at the end of this blog.

Now, let’s see what GitHub is and why it is even used in the first place.

GitHub is a company that provides services.

GitHub is a company that provides services. Okay, services like what?

They provide Cloud-based hosting services where you can collaborate with your friends.

Back up your code online.

Build your project and showcase it to anyone.

Let’s Understand Why do we even need GitHub in the first place.

Let’s say that you and your friend came up with a project idea, and you both live in different locations. Now, to build that project, you both need to work together and write code.

But you both live in different locations. How can you see your friend’s code and vice versa?

GitHub is an online service where you can store your code in a repository. What is a repository? It is like a database where you store your project and its files. GitHub is used when we want to work with others on some projects. They provide free storage for your project, and you can also host your project there using GitHub Pages for a static website.

Git vs GitHub (Quick Summary)

Git is the Tool and GitHub is the platform.

Resources to Learn Git

These are a few resources that will help you in your learning. But Remember the most practical way you will learn the Git Commands and understand more when you use it in your projects.

W3Schools

https://www.w3schools.com/git/git_ignore.asp?remote=github
Oh My Git!

A fun, interactive game that teaches Git concepts visually.

https://ohmygit.org/
Git Exercises

Practice Git commands with hands-on challenges.

https://gitexercises.fracz.com/
Git Immersion

A guided, step-by-step introduction to Git fundamentals.

https://gitimmersion.com/
Learn Git Branching

A visual and interactive way to understand branching and merging in Git.

https://learngitbranching.js.org/