LLM Inference Optimization Explained: KV Cache, Speculative Decoding & Cost | Chapter 9

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Download the source code from here: https://onepagecode.substack.com/ Inference optimization is critical for making LLMs faster, cheaper, and more scalable in production. In this chapter, we break down the key techniques used to reduce latency and cost when serving large language models. Whether you're building your own inference service or using model APIs, understanding these optimization techniques will help you make better architectural and cost decisions. What you’ll learn: • Computational bottlenecks in inference (compute-bound vs memory bandwidth-bound) • Key performance metrics: TTFT, TPOT, Throughput, Goodput, MFU & MBU • AI accelerators and hardware considerations • Model-level optimization techniques • Quantization, distillation, and pruning • Overcoming autoregressive decoding bottlenecks • Speculative decoding explained • KV cache optimization and management • Attention mechanism optimizations (FlashAttention, PagedAttention, etc.) • Inference service-level techniques • Batching strategies (static, dynamic, and continuous batching) • Decoupling prefill and decode • Prompt caching for cost and latency reduction • Parallelism strategies (tensor, pipeline, replica) This chapter is essential if you're serious about deploying LLMs efficiently at scale. Drop a comment: What’s the biggest inference challenge you’re facing right now — latency or cost? #InferenceOptimization #LLMInference #KVCache #SpeculativeDecoding #PromptCaching #TTFT #TPOT #ModelOptimization #Chapter9

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