The Power of "Think Step by Step"
Chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting is one of the most powerful techniques in prompt engineering. By asking Claude to show its reasoning, you dramatically improve accuracy on complex tasks — math, logic, coding, and analysis.
The difference is often striking. Let's see a live comparison:
❌ Without CoT
"If a store has a 25% off sale and then offers an additional 10% off the sale price, what's the total discount on a $200 item?"
"The total discount is 35%, so the price would be $130."
Wrong — that's not how compound discounts work!
✓ With CoT
"Think step by step: If a store has a 25% off sale..."
Step 1: Original price = $200
Step 2: 25% off → $200 × 0.75 = $150
Step 3: Additional 10% off sale price → $150 × 0.90 = $135
Step 4: Total discount = $200 - $135 = $65 = 32.5%
Step 2: 25% off → $200 × 0.75 = $150
Step 3: Additional 10% off sale price → $150 × 0.90 = $135
Step 4: Total discount = $200 - $135 = $65 = 32.5%
Correct! The compound discount is 32.5%, not 35%
Watch the Thinking Process
Select a question and watch Claude's chain-of-thought reasoning build in real-time: