Diverse Prompts: Illuminating the Prompt Space of Large Language Models with MAP-Elites

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Main Authors: Santos, Gabriel Machado, Julia, Rita Maria da Silva, Nascimento, Marcelo Zanchetta do
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Santos, Gabriel Machado
Julia, Rita Maria da Silva
Nascimento, Marcelo Zanchetta do
author_facet Santos, Gabriel Machado
Julia, Rita Maria da Silva
Nascimento, Marcelo Zanchetta do
contents Prompt engineering is essential for optimizing large language models (LLMs), yet the link between prompt structures and task performance remains underexplored. This work introduces an evolutionary approach that combines context-free grammar (CFG) with the MAP-Elites algorithm to systematically explore the prompt space. Our method prioritizes quality and diversity, generating high-performing and structurally varied prompts while analyzing their alignment with diverse tasks by varying traits such as the number of examples (shots) and reasoning depth. By systematically mapping the phenotypic space, we reveal how structural variations influence LLM performance, offering actionable insights for task-specific and adaptable prompt design. Evaluated on seven BigBench Lite tasks across multiple LLMs, our results underscore the critical interplay of quality and diversity, advancing the effectiveness and versatility of LLMs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_14367
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Diverse Prompts: Illuminating the Prompt Space of Large Language Models with MAP-Elites
Santos, Gabriel Machado
Julia, Rita Maria da Silva
Nascimento, Marcelo Zanchetta do
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Prompt engineering is essential for optimizing large language models (LLMs), yet the link between prompt structures and task performance remains underexplored. This work introduces an evolutionary approach that combines context-free grammar (CFG) with the MAP-Elites algorithm to systematically explore the prompt space. Our method prioritizes quality and diversity, generating high-performing and structurally varied prompts while analyzing their alignment with diverse tasks by varying traits such as the number of examples (shots) and reasoning depth. By systematically mapping the phenotypic space, we reveal how structural variations influence LLM performance, offering actionable insights for task-specific and adaptable prompt design. Evaluated on seven BigBench Lite tasks across multiple LLMs, our results underscore the critical interplay of quality and diversity, advancing the effectiveness and versatility of LLMs.
title Diverse Prompts: Illuminating the Prompt Space of Large Language Models with MAP-Elites
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.14367