Chain-of-Thought Prompting
Chain-of-thought (CoT) means asking the model to show its reasoning before giving a final answer. It improves accuracy on math, logic, and multi-step tasks.
Simple trigger
Add a phrase like:
- “Think step by step.”
- “Show your reasoning.”
- “Explain your approach before answering.”
Example
Without CoT: “What is 23 × 47?”
With CoT: “What is 23 × 47? Think step by step and show your work.”
The model is more likely to compute correctly when it writes intermediate steps.
When to use it
- Math and calculations
- Logic puzzles and multi-step reasoning
- Decisions that need justification
- Code or analysis where you want to see the reasoning