REASONING LAB

Model Reasoning Prompts

A few good questions to see how a model thinks.

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A few good questions to see how a model thinks.

Copy a question into a new chat with each model, then compare its answer and reasoning.

7 questions
01Basic checks

Comparing decimals

Treat 9.11 and 9.9 as decimal numbers: the dot is a decimal point, not a version separator. Which number is larger? Output only the larger number.
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Reference answer

9.9. Because 9.9 equals 9.90, and 9.90 is greater than 9.11.

What to check

Check whether it compares numeric values, rather than directly comparing the fractional parts 11 and 9.

02Basic checks

Counting letters

How many times does the lowercase ASCII letter r appear in the English string strawberry? Do not translate or rewrite the string. Output only an integer.
Show reference answer

Reference answer

3. The letter r is at positions 3, 8 and 9 in strawberry.

What to check

Check character-by-character counting. Every language version must keep strawberry and r unchanged.

03Logical reasoning

Shared siblings

Alex is a boy and has exactly 3 sisters. Each sister has exactly 2 brothers, including Alex. These are all the children of the same two parents. How many children are in this family? Output only an integer.
Show reference answer

Reference answer

5. There are 2 boys, including Alex, and 3 girls. The sisters share the same 2 brothers.

What to check

Check whether it recognizes the shared relationship and avoids adding 2 separate brothers for each sister.

04Logical reasoning

Getting to the car wash

I want to hand over my car, which is parked at home, to the car wash staff for cleaning. The car wash is 50 meters from home, and both the car and I are still at home. To bring the car to the shop, should I walk there or drive there? State your choice and give one sentence explaining why.
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Reference answer

Drive there. The task is to bring the car from home to the car wash, so the car must reach the shop too.

What to check

Check whether it considers both the distance and the task's goal, instead of suggesting walking just because 50 meters is close.

05Logical reasoning

Fruit labels, all wrong

There are 3 boxes: one contains only apples, one only oranges, and one a mixture of apples and oranges, with exactly 1 box of each type. Their labels are A (apples), O (oranges) and M (mixed), and every label is wrong. You draw 1 fruit from the box labeled M, and it is an apple. What does each labeled box actually contain? Use A=only apples, O=only oranges and M=mixed. Output only a JSON object with keys A, O and M.
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Reference answer

{"A":"O","O":"M","M":"A"}. The box labeled M cannot be mixed. Drawing an apple means it contains only apples; the remaining boxes follow from every label being wrong.

What to check

Check that there is exactly 1 box of each content type and that all labels are wrong. A, O and M are fixed codes and must not be translated.

06Logical reasoning

A set relationship you cannot reverse

All A belong to B, and at least 1 B belongs to C. From these two statements alone, does it necessarily follow that at least 1 A belongs to C? Output only yes or no.
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Reference answer

no. A counterexample is A={1}, B={1,2}, C={2}. Both premises hold, but no A belongs to C.

What to check

Check whether it distinguishes a possible conclusion from a necessary implication. It must not instead claim that A and C necessarily have no intersection.

07Instruction following

Three steps, in order

Process the array [3,1,4,1,5,9] strictly in this order: remove duplicate values, sort numerically in ascending order, then square each item. Output only a valid JSON array, with no explanation or code fence.
Show reference answer

Reference answer

[1,9,16,25,81]. Removing duplicates and sorting gives [1,3,4,5,9]; then square each item.

What to check

Check the operation order, deduplication, numeric sorting, squaring and the requirement to output only JSON.

How to make comparisons useful

  1. Start a new chat each time and give each model the same question.
  2. Check the answer, then check whether it recognized the conditions in the question.
  3. Repeat the test and check whether the results are consistent.

These questions explore reasoning and instruction following; they are not a standardized ability score.

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