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CCAO-F · Study Guide

← Domain 7: Troubleshooting and Optimization

7.1 · Lesson 1 of 3

Diagnose Underperforming Outputs

What you need to know

Domain 7 is Troubleshooting and Optimization (10%). Lesson 7.1: before rewriting a prompt, work out what is actually wrong. Move from symptom to cause to first fix. Generic output, wrong facts, ignored instructions, and drift each point to a different cause and a different first remedy.

Symptom → cause → first fix

  • Generic / bland

    Likely cause: Missing context, audience, or purpose

    First fix: Add specifics and an example of what good looks like

  • Wrong facts

    Likely cause: Source missing or stale

    First fix: Supply or update the source and verify

  • Ignored instructions

    Likely cause: Buried, contradictory, or too-long rules

    First fix: Simplify and restate the key rule

  • Drift / contradiction

    Likely cause: Context overload in a long chat

    First fix: Summarise and restart; persist standing facts in a Project

  • Wrong format

    Likely cause: Format never specified

    First fix: State the structure explicitly; give a small example

Worked example

Four weak outputs: generic, wrong format, wrong facts, inconsistent across runs. For each, write the likely cause, check what changed (prompt, files, Project, model), apply the smallest fix that targets the cause, and rerun on the same input. Fill a table of symptom, cause, first fix, and result — that is the exam habit.

Exam traps

  • Rewrite the whole prompt immediately

    Diagnose what changed and match the first fix to the symptom.

  • Use the strongest model to fix every problem

    Fix the cause first — missing context, stale source, buried rule, or overload.

  • Treat every symptom as the same failure

    Bland output, wrong facts, ignored instructions, drift, and wrong format each have different first remedies.

  • Skip asking what changed since the last good result

    A new file, edited instruction, different model, or new input type is often the cause.

Practice scenario

A long chat that used to follow the brief now contradicts earlier decisions and forgets constraints. What is the best first fix?

Choose one answer

Build exercise

Map Symptoms to Causes and First Fixes

7.1 · Intermediate · ~35 min · claude.ai

What you will practise

  • How symptoms such as generic, off-format, wrong, or inconsistent output point to different causes.
  • How to find out what changed before rewriting.
  • How to choose the cheapest first fix.
  • How to confirm the fix worked.

Complete the Domain 7 diagnosis table with four symptoms, each with a cause, first fix, and rerun.

Open Domain 7 exercises

Path: /learn/claude-associate/exercises/7-troubleshooting-optimization

Sources

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