CCARF Practice Question

Paper 1 · Question 51

D4 Prompt Engineering & Structured Output · Paper 1

Your document processing pipeline chains three steps: (1) extract raw text, (2) classify document type, (3) extract structured fields based on type. Step 2 occasionally misclassifies invoices as purchase orders, causing step 3 to extract the wrong fields. The team proposes combining steps 2 and 3 into a single prompt to reduce errors. What is the better approach?

• A.Combine steps 2 and 3 as proposed, since fewer steps means fewer failure points
• B.Keep steps separate and validate the classification between steps 2 and 3 before extraction
• C.Add more few-shot classification examples to step 2's prompt so misclassifications stop occurring
• D.Run step 2 three times and use majority voting to determine the document type

Show answer & explanations

Correct answer: B

A: Combining steps creates a less focused prompt that must handle both classification and extraction simultaneously. This increases attention dilution and makes it harder to diagnose which part fails.

B: Keeping steps separate maintains focused prompts. Adding validation between steps catches misclassifications before they cascade into wrong-field extraction. This is the core principle of prompt chaining: focused steps with inter-step validation.

C: Better examples may help, but without validation between steps, misclassifications still cascade silently into step 3. Inter-step validation is the structural fix.

D: Majority voting adds cost and latency without addressing the root cause. Validation between steps is more efficient and catches the specific failure mode.

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