Chain-of-Thought Prompting

What it is

Chain-of-thought prompting asks the AI to work through problems step-by-step, showing its reasoning. Instead of jumping to an answer, the model explains its thinking process. This can be triggered by phrases like "think step by step" or "explain your reasoning."

Why it matters

Chain-of-thought improves accuracy on complex reasoning tasks—maths problems, logic puzzles, multi-step analysis. By forcing the model to articulate intermediate steps, it catches errors it might make when jumping to conclusions. The visible reasoning also helps you verify the logic and catch mistakes.