Practice and reinforce the concepts from Lesson 3
Master the art of guiding AI through complex, step-by-step problem-solving processes for superior code generation and system design.
Transform single-step requests into systematic multi-step reasoning prompts.
Basic Prompt:
"Create a user authentication system"
Your Chain-of-Thought Version:
Create a user authentication system. Let me think through this step by step:
Step 1: ________________________________
Step 2: ________________________________
Step 3: ________________________________
Step 4: ________________________________
Step 5: ________________________________
Now implement this systematic approach:
Basic Prompt:
"Build a real-time chat application"
Your Chain-of-Thought Version:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Break complex software problems into manageable components.
Complex Problem: "Build a complete e-commerce platform with inventory management"
Level 1 Decomposition (Main Systems):
Level 2 Decomposition (User Management System):
Level 3 Decomposition (User Registration):
Order the Level 1 components by implementation priority:
Priority 1 (Must implement first):
Priority 2 (Depends on Priority 1):
Priority 3 (Depends on Priority 1-2):
Practice identifying and managing component dependencies.
Goal: Design a microservices architecture for a food delivery platform
Dependency Mapping Exercise:
Service Dependencies Analysis:
Prerequisites (implement first):
1. ________________________________
2. ________________________________
3. ________________________________
Core Services (implement next):
1. ________________________________
2. ________________________________
3. ________________________________
Advanced Services (implement last):
1. ________________________________
2. ________________________________
3. ________________________________
Implementation Sequence Reasoning:
Why this order?
Step 1 reasoning: ________________________________
________________________________________________
Step 2 reasoning: ________________________________
________________________________________________
Step 3 reasoning: ________________________________
________________________________________________
Design solutions that improve through iterations.
Design an iterative development plan for a recommendation engine:
Iteration 1 (MVP - Week 1-2):
Goal: ________________________________
Features:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Success Criteria:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Iteration 2 (Enhanced - Week 3-4):
Goal: ________________________________
Builds on: _________________________ (from Iteration 1)
New Features:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Success Criteria:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Iteration 3 (Advanced - Week 5-6):
Goal: ________________________________
Builds on: _________________________ (from previous iterations)
New Features:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Success Criteria:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Practice anticipating and planning for failure modes.
System: Online payment processing
Error Analysis Exercise:
What could go wrong?
Error Category 1: Network Issues
- Specific failure: ________________________________
- Impact: ________________________________
- Prevention strategy: ________________________________
Error Category 2: Data Validation
- Specific failure: ________________________________
- Impact: ________________________________
- Prevention strategy: ________________________________
Error Category 3: External Service Failures
- Specific failure: ________________________________
- Impact: ________________________________
- Prevention strategy: ________________________________
Error Category 4: Security Breaches
- Specific failure: ________________________________
- Impact: ________________________________
- Prevention strategy: ________________________________
Robust Design Prompt: Write a prompt that incorporates your error analysis:
Build a payment processing system with error-first design:
Error Prevention Plan:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Failure Recovery Strategies:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Now implement the robust system:
Create prompts that check their own outputs.
Base Implementation Prompt:
Create a REST API endpoint for user profile updates with built-in verification.
IMPLEMENTATION:
[AI generates the code]
SELF-VERIFICATION CHECKLIST:
Now verify this implementation:
□ Security Check:
- Input validation: ________________
- Authentication: ________________
- Authorization: ________________
- Data sanitization: ________________
□ Functionality Check:
- CRUD operations: ________________
- Error responses: ________________
- Success responses: ________________
- Edge cases: ________________
□ Performance Check:
- Database queries: ________________
- Response times: ________________
- Resource usage: ________________
VERIFICATION RESULTS:
[AI reviews and reports issues]
CORRECTIONS:
[AI fixes identified problems]
Create a verification template for a different type of system:
System Type: Database migration script
Your Verification Template:
Create a database migration script with self-verification:
IMPLEMENTATION:
_________________________________
VERIFICATION CHECKLIST:
□ ________________________________
□ ________________________________
□ ________________________________
□ ________________________________
□ ________________________________
VERIFICATION RESULTS:
_________________________________
CORRECTIONS:
_________________________________
Practice analyzing problems from different viewpoints.
Analyze a cloud file storage system from multiple perspectives:
Developer Perspective:
Security Team Perspective:
Operations Team Perspective:
User Experience Perspective:
Integration Prompt:
Design a file storage system considering all perspectives:
DEVELOPER REQUIREMENTS: _________________________
SECURITY REQUIREMENTS: __________________________
OPERATIONS REQUIREMENTS: ________________________
UX REQUIREMENTS: _______________________________
OPTIMAL SOLUTION SYNTHESIS:
Find the design that best satisfies all perspectives:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Practice breaking down enterprise-scale challenges.
Goal: Build a complete CI/CD pipeline with monitoring
Top-Level Breakdown:
A. Source Control Integration: ____________________
B. Continuous Integration: _______________________
C. Continuous Deployment: _______________________
D. Monitoring & Alerting: _______________________
Detailed Breakdown (Choose one area):
Focus Area: [Choose A, B, C, or D] ________________
Sub-components:
1. ________________________________
2. ________________________________
3. ________________________________
4. ________________________________
Implementation details for #1:
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
Systematic Implementation Prompt:
Build a [your chosen focus area] following this hierarchy:
Level 1 Goal: ________________________________
Level 2 Components:
_________________________________
_________________________________
Level 3 Implementation Details:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Start with the foundation component:
Practice problem-solving within realistic constraints.
Scenario: Build a high-performance API for a startup with constraints
Constraints:
Constraint Analysis:
Budget constraint impact:
- Technology choices: ___________________________
- Infrastructure limits: _________________________
- Solution approach: ___________________________
Team constraint impact:
- Technology complexity: ________________________
- Learning curve considerations: _________________
- Development approach: ________________________
Timeline constraint impact:
- Feature scope: ______________________________
- Technology choices: __________________________
- Development strategy: _________________________
Performance constraint impact:
- Architecture decisions: _______________________
- Technology requirements: ______________________
- Optimization priorities: _______________________
Constraint-Optimized Solution:
Given ALL constraints, design the optimal solution:
Technology Stack (considering team skills):
_________________________________
Architecture (considering budget + performance):
_________________________________
Development Plan (considering timeline):
Week 1-2: ________________________________
Week 3-4: ________________________________
Week 5-6: ________________________________
Risk Mitigation (considering constraints):
_________________________________
Evaluate the effectiveness of your multi-step reasoning.
For each reasoning exercise you completed, rate yourself:
Problem Decomposition Quality (1-10): ____
Dependency Management (1-10): ____
Error Anticipation (1-10): ____
Perspective Integration (1-10): ____
Constraint Handling (1-10): ____
Strongest reasoning skill: ________________________________
Area needing improvement: ________________________________
Specific practice plan:
Test your systematic thinking skills:
Best approach for complex system design?
When designing error handling?
Multi-perspective analysis helps with?
Constraint-driven reasoning means?
You've mastered the essential patterns of multi-step reasoning:
✅ Chain-of-Thought Construction - Guide AI through logical steps ✅ Problem Decomposition - Break complex challenges into manageable parts ✅ Dependency Management - Understand prerequisites and implementation order ✅ Iterative Refinement - Plan solutions that evolve and improve ✅ Error-First Design - Anticipate and prevent failure modes ✅ Self-Verification - Build quality checks into your reasoning ✅ Multi-Perspective Analysis - Consider all stakeholder needs ✅ Hierarchical Solving - Handle enterprise-scale complexity ✅ Constraint Optimization - Work effectively within real-world limitations
Next Challenge: Learn to optimize these reasoning processes for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in production environments!