How to Actually Learn LLMs in 2026 | Ex-Google, Microsoft Engineer

If you want to actually understand large language models- not just use ChatGPT, but genuinely understand how these systems work, how to build with them, and how to stay relevant as this field evolves- this video gives you the exact learning path to follow, step by step. There are hundreds of LLM courses out there right now. Everyone's got a tutorial, everyone's got a certification. And if you're trying to figure out where to start, it can feel completely paralyzing. Should you jump straight into prompt engineering? Do you need to understand transformers first? What about fine-tuning? What about agents? In this video, I break down the 4-step path that actually works- the one that gives you lasting understanding rather than just surface-level familiarity. The 4 Steps: Step 1: Fundamentals of Machine Learning & Deep Learning Step 2: Understanding Transformers & the Attention Mechanism Step 3: LLM Pre-training, Fine-tuning & RAG Step 4: Applications & AI Agents Each step builds on the last. Skip the foundation, and the house falls down. This path isn't the fastest, but it's the one that actually works. Free Resources Mentioned: Step 1: ML & Deep Learning Fundamentals Machine Learning Specialization (Andrew Ng): https://www.deeplearning.ai/courses/m... MIT Introduction to Deep Learning: https://introtodeeplearning.com/ Step 2: Transformers & Attention Jay Alammar's Illustrated Transformer: https://jalammar.github.io/illustrate... Hugging Face NLP/LLM Course: https://huggingface.co/learn Step 3: Pre-training, Fine-tuning & RAG Cohere's LLM University: https://cohere.com/llmu DeepLearning.AI – Pretraining LLMs: https://www.deeplearning.ai/short-cou... DeepLearning.AI – Fine-tuning LLMs: https://www.deeplearning.ai/short-cou... Step 4: Applications & AI Agents Hugging Face Agents Course: https://huggingface.co/learn/agents-c... Berkeley's LLM Agents Course: https://llmagents-learning.org/f24 Arize AI – AI Agents Mastery: https://arize.com/llm-course/ DeepLearning.AI – Multi-AI Agent Systems with CrewAI: https://www.deeplearning.ai/short-cou... Subscribe for more AI/ML career advice, free learning resources, technical explainers, and my journey as an immigrant in the US building a career as an AI leader.