DAY 45 / 210
Foundations of Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning
This day establishes the core motivation and taxonomy of PEFT methods that the rest of phase-2 will apply to production models; it explains why full fine-tuning is rarely viable for startup-scale work and sets the measurement baseline for later days.
⏱ 45 min target📝 3 quiz Qs
Resources
- 20 minreadingHugging FacePEFT: State-of-the-Art Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning Methods
Overview and quickstart sections
- 25 min
Deliverable
journal entry (500 words) comparing full fine-tuning vs. LoRA on cost, latency, and accuracy using the Maku brief-form context
Quiz · 3 questions
1. Which statement best captures why PEFT is preferred over full fine-tuning for most production LLMs?
2. In one sentence, state the key assumption LoRA makes about the update matrix ΔW.
3. Describe one potential misconception a practitioner might have when first applying LoRA to a RAG pipeline and how it could be tested.