AI & ML
COBALT: Contextual Bandit Learning with Offline Trajectories for Multi-Turn Code Generation
arXiv cs.SE0 views
arXiv:2602.03806v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Training large language models (LLMs) for multi-turn code generation typically relies on online reinforcement learning (RL), in which models learn from repeatedly generated online rollouts. Although effective, online RL can be costly and unstable. In this paper, we present contextual bandit learning with offline trajectories (COBALT), a simple method that reuses offline multi-turn trajectories to efficiently train LLMs for multi-turn code generation. Building on the observation that multi-turn code generation is a one-step recoverable Markov decision process, COBALT first collects code generation trajectories using a reference LLM and divides them into partial trajectories. Then, during online bandit learning, the LLM is trained to complete each partial trajectory through single-step code generation. On LiveCodeBench, COBALT substantially improves R1-Distill 8B and Qwen3 8B by up to 9.0 and 6.2 absolute Pass@1 points and matches the performance of two multi-turn online RL baselines using GRPO and VeRPO. We also perform a perturbation-based analysis of in-context reward hacking and show that Cobalt can improve robustness to misleading execution feedback. Overall, our results demonstrate that Cobalt is a promising solution for multi-turn code generation. Our code and data are available at https://github.com/OSU-NLP-Group/cobalt.
Source:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03806PreviousOpenCollab: A Multi-Agent Coding Framework with Programmable Collaboration and Controllable RuntimeNextSWE-Bench Pro Verified: A Reliable Benchmark for Software Engineering Agents
Related posts
Introducing the Grid Protectors Program
0OpenAI Blog
The world has a new plan to save nature, but it still needs the money
0Ars Technica

Could data center backlash flip Florida?
0The Verge

Vivo’s first Pro Max phone proves its Ultra is still in a league of its own
0The Verge

Why Peacock is making a huge bet on YouTube
0The Verge
Ninja’s first-ever microwave just replaced two of my kitchen appliances at once
0TechCrunch