STEP-KTODER is proposed, a framework for code preference optimization that defines steps as module-level functions in decomposed multi-function programs and assigns binary correctness labels via automatically generated unit tests and shows that execution-based labels are essential.
Abstract
Process supervision has improved mathematical reasoning, where intermediate steps are naturally expressed as chains of thought. In code generation, however, process supervision remains underexplored because there is no standard notion of a step. Supervision can target lines, reasoning traces, or program states, making it unclear what to label and optimize. We propose STEP-KTODER, a framework for code preference optimization that defines steps as module-level functions in decomposed multi-function programs and assigns binary correctness labels via automatically generated unit tests. Our method provides a code-specific instantiation of stepwise KTO, combining function-level process supervision with outcome-level feedback on the full program. We evaluate on HumanEval(+), MBPP(+), BigCodeBench, and LiveCodeBench, showing that STEP-KTODER improves over outcome-only KTO and DPO. Further analysis shows that execution-based labels are essential: LLM-as-a-judge annotations systematically over-predict function failures, corrupt positive step labels, and degrade downstream preference optimization. Code is available at: https://github.com/inechnech/STEP-KTODER.
PerfAgent is presented, a profiler-guided, verifier-in-the-loop workflow that gives an off-the-shelf coding agent the feedback needed to find real hotspots, improve beyond the first passing patch, and use profiler evidence rather than timing alone to decide what to optimize next.
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A unified supervision framework is introduced that embeds programmatically verifiable checkers into synthesized instruction-conflict instances, enabling alignment without oracle labels or reasoning traces, supporting both instruction-tuned and reasoning models.
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Differential compiler testing requires automatically generated programs that are not only diverse and bug-revealing, but also semantically well-defined and reproducible. Rule-based generators provide strong validity guarantees but offer limited control over semantic variation, while large language models (LLMs) can synthesize expressive programs without principled mechanisms for balancing competing testing objectives. This paper proposes LMOEC, a constrained multi-objective evolutionary framework that integrates code language models as semantic genetic operators within an NSGA-II search process. Instead of using the LLM as a one-shot generator, we employ it for population initialization, crossover, and mutation at the program level, enabling semantics-aware recombination while preserving strict admissibility constraints. Compiler test generation is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem that simultaneously promotes structural diversity, cross-configuration output inconsistency, semantic complexity, and robustness to mutation. A constraint-driven acceptance pipeline enforces syntactic validity, deterministic execution, bounded runtime, and avoidance of undefined behavior before evolutionary selection. By maintaining a Pareto front of non-dominated programs, LMOEC preserves multiple high-value test archetypes reflecting different trade-offs between bug exposure and reproducibility. The framework demonstrates how expressive code models can be systematically embedded into evolutionary multi-objective optimization for reliability-critical software testing.
Lang Hong Nguyet Anh, Ho Viet Duc Luong, Vu Van An· Annual Conference on Genetic...· 0 citations
Natural-language requirements for program synthesis are often incomplete or ambiguous, yet large language models are commonly expected to generate code in a single pass. Prior clarification-based methods address this issue by asking follow-up questions when sampled candidate programs disagree, but fixed clarify-on-disagreement policies can overuse clarification and can also overtrust weak behavioral agreement. We present an adaptive routing framework for LLM-based program synthesis that treats clarification as an inference-time control decision. The framework augments a ClarifyGPT-style pipeline with execution-driven confidence estimation, semanticdifference analysis, and bounded candidate expansion, allowing the system to choose among direct generation, additional evidence gathering, and clarification. We evaluate the framework on MBPP, HumanEval, and extended-test variants using GPT-4.1 mini, Claude Haiku 4.5, and GPT-5.4 mini. Adaptive routing improves pass@1 accuracy by up to 7.60 percentage points over single-pass baselines. Compared with fixed-policy clarification, it preserves accuracy while reducing token usage by up to 57.2% for GPT-4.1 mini, and reallocates computation toward harder cases for Claude Haiku 4.5. These results suggest that clarification is most useful when triggered selectively based on execution evidence and semantic disagreement, even when ambiguity is observed indirectly through candidate behavior rather than through explicitly annotated ambiguous requirements.
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