Hands-On Large Language Models
Hands-On Large Language Models by Jay Alammar and Maarten Grootendorstby Jay Alammar and Maarten Grootendorst
Shares rank 5 of 16 technical books by recommenders
Up-to-date guide with examples across major foundation model providers, plus practical chapters on structured outputs and evaluation.
Up-to-date guide with examples across major foundation model providers, plus practical chapters on structured outputs and evaluation.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Covers all major foundation model providers
“Up to date and has examples for all of the major foundation model providers”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2026)” Practical structured output extraction chapter
“The chapter on structured outputs shows how to extract out data from text”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Large Language Models for Mortals: A Practical Guide for Analysts with Python” Worked accuracy calculation on ground truth
“it goes through an example ground truth and calculating accuracy”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Large Language Models for Mortals: A Practical Guide for Analysts with Python”
Other technical books people recommend
The four most recommended other technical books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux From Scratchby Gerard Beekmans | 72 | 19 | 79% | 9 | 20 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| Game Engine White Papers: Commander Keen | 13 | 2 | 87% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Offline password cracking bookby Bojta | 10 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| FreeBSD Handbookby FreeBSD Documentation Project | 9 | 1 | 90% | 4 | — | — |
| Hands-On Large Language Modelsby Jay Alammar and Maarten GrootendorstThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
3 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The chapter on structured outputs shows how to extract out data from text”
“it goes through an example ground truth and calculating accuracy”
“Up to date and has examples for all of the major foundation model providers”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.