arXiv AI

When Uncertainty Isn't Enough: An Empirical Study of Self-Correction in Code Generation

arXiv:2608. 14659v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Large language models for code generation often produce incorrect solutions without reliable indicators of failure.

arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 27

Functional Entropy: Predicting Functional Correctness in LLM-Generated Code with Uncertainty Quantification

The paper introduces Functional Entropy, a new uncertainty quantification technique for assessing the functional correctness of code generated by large language models. It evaluates token‑probability and sampling‑based methods across three programming languages and five LLMs, finding that token‑probability approaches generalize well while NLI‑based sampling fails due to semantic clustering. Functional equivalence methods, which replace NLI with an LLM‑based functional assessment, achieve superior AUROC and calibration in most model‑benchmark combinations.

By Dylan Bouchard, Mohit Singh Chauhan, Zeya Ahmad, Ho-Kyeong Ra
arXiv AI
Sep 16

Fine-grained Approaches for Confidence Calibration of LLMs in Automated Code Revision

The paper investigates how to improve confidence calibration for large language models (LLMs) used in automated code revision (ACR). It proposes applying local Platt-scaling to three fine-grained confidence scores, rather than the conventional global method, and demonstrates that this approach consistently reduces calibration error across multiple tasks, metrics, and model sizes. The study shows that fine-grained calibration, especially when combined with global scaling, yields more reliable confidence estimates for ACR tasks.

By Hong Yi Lin, Chunhua Liu, Haoyu Gao, Patanamon Thongtanunam, Christoph Treude
arXiv AI
Aug 26

Robust Code RL via Faulty-Code-Driven Test case Synthesis and Dense Reward Shaping

The paper introduces RobustTests, a framework that improves reinforcement learning for code generation by synthesizing test cases from faulty code and refining rewards with a dense, stepwise function. It uses validator agents and behavioral clustering to filter out invalid or redundant tests, and incorporates pass‑rate‑based rewards to counter hallucination noise. Experiments on CodeContests and LiveCodeBench show that fine‑tuning Qwen3‑32B with RobustTests yields a 3% absolute performance gain over baseline methods.

By Yiwen Zhang, Xiaodong Yan, Zhenyu Huang, Deng Zhao, Liang Jiang, Qing Cui, Zujie Wen, Zhiqiang Zhang, Jun Zhou
arXiv AI
Aug 18

Invariant Pretraining for Robust Code Representations

arXiv:2608. 15412v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Encoder-based code representation models remain widely deployed for discriminative tasks such as clone detection and code classification, where their small size and low inference cost are decisive.

By Yifeng He, Yundi Xu, Christopher Castro Gaw Gonzalo, Zili Wang, Hao Chen
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 15

Introspective Uncertainty Estimation for LLM-Based Code Generation

The thesis explores Introspective Uncertainty Estimation (IUE) for large language models (LLMs) in code generation, aiming to determine whether hidden-state representations can indicate functional correctness at both response and line levels. Using LiveCodeBench and BigCodeBench, the study finds that hidden states provide a strong signal for overall correctness, with static single-token probes performing best, while dynamic strategies offer no consistent advantage. Although line-level fault localization is more challenging, a conditional Top‑K ranking approach remains effective, suggesting a two‑stage workflow that first screens responses for risk and then prioritizes line‑level checks.

By Thomas Klassert
arXiv AI
Jun 16

DualGauge: Automated Joint Security-Functionality Benchmarking of Specification-Only Code Generation by LLMs and Coding Agents

arXiv:2511. 20709v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) and LLM-based coding agents are now used to generate code from natural-language specifications, yet ensuring such code is both functionally correct and secure remains a challenge.

By Rupam Patir, Keyan Guo, Suvadra Barua, Abhijeet Pathak, Dinesh Gudimetla, Jiawei Guo, Hongxin Hu, Haipeng Cai