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A customer says your LLM app is too slow. Give me five levers to reduce latency, and their tradeoffs.

TTFT vs tokens-per-second, the output-length lever everyone forgets, and why streaming is the highest-ROI fix that changes no latency at all. The five-lever answer with real numbers.

Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Forward Deployed Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.

TTFT vs tokens-per-second, the output-length lever everyone forgets, and why streaming is the highest-ROI fix that changes no latency at all. The five-lever answer with real numbers.

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