1.5 — Decomposition Techniques for Complex Problems

CCAR-P Domain 1 · Task 1.5

What You Need to Know

Fixed vs Dynamic Decomposition

Type	When	Pattern
Fixed (design time)	Steps known in advance	Prompt chaining
Dynamic (run time)	Shape emerges during execution	Orchestrator-workers

Four Decomposition Axes

• By stage — sequential phases with hand-offs (later depends on earlier)
• By section — independent units in parallel
• By perspective — same input through different lenses / voting
• By specialism — different tools, prompts or models needed

Attention Dilution

One pass covering too much → inconsistent depth, missed items, contradictory judgements.

Fix (both mandatory):

1. Per-unit local passes (consistent depth on every unit)
2. Separate integration pass (cross-unit issues invisible to local passes)

Bigger model / larger context window does not fix attention dilution.

Interface Discipline

• Intermediate outputs structured against a defined schema (not free prose)
• Acceptance gates between stages (stop error propagation)
• Attribution travels as fields

When Not to Decompose

Decompose only when quality improves, task cannot fit one context, or stages need independent verification. Otherwise stay in one call.

Exam Traps

• Splitting a one-call task into a multi-stage pipeline for “rigour”
• Fixing inconsistent depth with a larger model or bigger context
• Local passes only, no integration pass
• Passing free-text summaries between stages