Advanced Reasoning Strategies / Reasoning Decomposition

Decomposed Prompting

Advanced [4/5]

Task decomposition Problem breakdown Modular approach

Definition

Decomposed prompting breaks tasks into modular components and assigns them to appropriate handlers. Unlike simple step-by-step reasoning, decomposed prompting may route different subtasks to different models, tools, or specialized prompts.

This technique enables complex workflows where each component can be optimized independently.

Key Concepts

Task segmentation: Dividing complex tasks into discrete units
Handler routing: Assigning subtasks to appropriate processors
Modular prompts: Specialized prompts for each subtask
Result aggregation: Combining outputs into final answer

Examples

Multi-Handler System

Question Answering Pipeline

Task: "What was the stock price of Apple when the iPhone was announced?"

Decomposition:
├── Subtask 1 → Date Handler
│   "When was the first iPhone announced?"
│   → January 9, 2007
│
├── Subtask 2 → Stock Data Handler
│   "What was AAPL price on January 9, 2007?"
│   → $85.47 (adjusted)
│
└── Subtask 3 → Synthesis Handler
    "Combine: iPhone announced Jan 9, 2007, AAPL was $85.47"
    → Final formatted answer

Code Example

Routing Logic

def decomposed_qa(question):
    # Decompose into subtasks
    subtasks = decomposer.identify_subtasks(question)

    results = {}
    for task in subtasks:
        if task.type == "factual_lookup":
            results[task.id] = knowledge_base.query(task)
        elif task.type == "calculation":
            results[task.id] = calculator.compute(task)
        elif task.type == "reasoning":
            results[task.id] = llm.reason(task)

    # Synthesize final answer
    return synthesizer.combine(results)

Interactive Exercise

✎

Design a Decomposition

Decompose this task into subtasks with appropriate handlers:

Task: "Summarize the top 3 news articles about AI from today and translate the summary to Spanish."

Pro Tips

Use specialized models for specialized tasks
Consider parallelizing independent subtasks
Design clear interfaces between handlers
Build in error handling for failed subtasks

Definition

Key Concepts

Examples

Interactive Exercise

Related Terms