Scaling Code-Assisted Chain-of-Thoughts and Instructions for Model Reasoning
On the map: LLM reasoning → Prompting and chain-of-thought reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
Reasoning capability is pivotal for Large Language Models (LLMs) to solve complex tasks, yet achieving reliable and scalable reasoning remains challenging. While Chain-of-Thought (CoT) prompting has become a mainstream approach, existing methods often suffer from uncontrolled generation, insufficient quality, and limited diversity in reasoning paths. Recent efforts leverage code to enhance CoT by grounding reasoning in executable steps, but such methods are typically constrained to predefined mathematical problems, hindering scalability and generalizability. In this work, we propose Caco (Code-Assisted Chain-of-ThOught), a novel framework that automates the synthesis of high-quality, verifiable, and diverse instruction-CoT reasoning data through code-driven augmentation. Unlike prior work, Caco first fine-tunes a code-based CoT generator on existing math and programming solutions in a unified code format, then scales the data generation to a large amount of diverse reasoning traces. Crucially, we introduce automated validation via code execution and rule-based filtering to ensure logical correctness and structural diversity, followed by reverse-engineering filtered outputs into natural language instructions and language CoTs to enrich task adaptability. This closed-loop process enables fully automated, scalable synthesis of reasoning data with guaranteed executability. Experiments on our created Caco-1.3M dataset demonstrate that Caco-trained models achieve strong competitive performance on mathematical reasoning benchmarks, outperforming existing strong baselines. Further analysis reveals that Caco's code-anchored verification and instruction diversity contribute to superior generalization across unseen tasks. Our work establishes a paradigm for building self-sustaining, trustworthy reasoning systems without human intervention.
Key facts. Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Prompting and chain-of-thought reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 23 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Oct 2025.
Builds on
23 of 51 references.
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Other references · 22
- 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 9,743
- 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
- 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,146
- 2017Decoupled Weight Decay Regularizationcited by 1,722
- 2024OlympiadBench: A Challenging Benchmark for Promoting AGI with Olympiad-Level Bilingual Multimodal Scientific Problemscited by 1,099
- 2024Qwen2.5-Math Technical Report: Toward Mathematical Expert Model via Self-Improvementcited by 1,057
- 2025rStar-Math: Small LLMs Can Master Math Reasoning with Self-Evolved Deep Thinkingcited by 308
- 2024Accessing GPT-4 level Mathematical Olympiad Solutions via Monte Carlo Tree Self-refine with LLaMa-3 8Bcited by 156
- 2024Orca-Math: Unlocking the potential of SLMs in Grade School Mathcited by 151
- 2024MAmmoTH2: Scaling Instructions from the Webcited by 143
- 2025KodCode: A Diverse, Challenging, and Verifiable Synthetic Dataset for Codingcited by 115
- 2025Big-Math: A Large-Scale, High-Quality Math Dataset for Reinforcement Learning in Language Modelscited by 104
10 more
- 2024MathGenie: Generating Synthetic Data with Question Back-translation for Enhancing Mathematical Reasoning of LLMscited by 72
- 2024Key-Point-Driven Data Synthesis with its Enhancement on Mathematical Reasoningcited by 58
- 2025CodeI/O: Condensing Reasoning Patterns via Code Input-Output Predictioncited by 54
- 2025MegaMath: Pushing the Limits of Open Math Corporacited by 47
- 2024MathCoder2: Better Math Reasoning from Continued Pretraining on Model-translated Mathematical Codecited by 39
- 2025MathFusion: Enhancing Mathematical Problem-solving of LLM through Instruction Fusioncited by 30
- 2024Unleashing LLM Reasoning Capability via Scalable Question Synthesis from Scratchcited by 24
- 2024DotaMath: Decomposition of Thought with Code Assistance and Self-correction for Mathematical Reasoningcited by 19
- 2025MetaLadder: Ascending Mathematical Solution Quality via Analogical-Problem Reasoning Transfercited by 6
- 2023Abstract Syntax Tree for Programming Language Understanding and Representation: How Far Are We?cited by 5
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 9.
10 papers.
- 2026MMFineReason: Closing the Multimodal Reasoning Gap via Open Data-Centric Methodscited by 27
- 2026SWE-World: Building Software Engineering Agents in Docker-Free Environmentscited by 21
- 2026SWE-Master: Unleashing the Potential of Software Engineering Agents via Post-Trainingcited by 18
- 2025OpenDataArena: A Fair and Open Arena for Benchmarking Post-Training Dataset Valuecited by 15
- 2026ChartVerse: Scaling Chart Reasoning via Reliable Programmatic Synthesis from Scratchcited by 8
- 2026Reasoning Models Will Sometimes Lie About Their Reasoningcited by 4
- 2026Tracing the Roots: A Multi-Agent Framework for Uncovering Data Lineage in Post-Training LLMscited by 2
- 2026Not All Code Is Equal: A Data-Centric Study of Code Complexity and LLM Reasoningcited by 1
- 2026DiagramBank: A Quality-Audited Dataset of Scientific Schematic Diagrams with Multi-Level Document Contextcited by 0
- 2026How code helps different tasks? A decompositional lens on LLM post-trainingcited by 0
- 2026How code helps different tasks? A decompositional lens on LLM post-training27 Sep 2026
- 2026Tracing the Roots: A Multi-Agent Framework for Uncovering Data Lineage in Post-Training LLMs12 Apr 2026
- 2026DiagramBank: A Quality-Audited Dataset of Scientific Schematic Diagrams with Multi-Level Document Context28 Feb 2026
- 2026SWE-World: Building Software Engineering Agents in Docker-Free Environments3 Feb 2026
- 2026SWE-Master: Unleashing the Potential of Software Engineering Agents via Post-Training3 Feb 2026
- 2026Not All Code Is Equal: A Data-Centric Study of Code Complexity and LLM Reasoning29 Jan 2026
- 2026MMFineReason: Closing the Multimodal Reasoning Gap via Open Data-Centric Methods29 Jan 2026
- 2026ChartVerse: Scaling Chart Reasoning via Reliable Programmatic Synthesis from Scratch20 Jan 2026
- 2026Reasoning Models Will Sometimes Lie About Their Reasoning12 Jan 2026
- 2025OpenDataArena: A Fair and Open Arena for Benchmarking Post-Training Dataset Value16 Dec 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026Hierarchical Chain-of-Thought: Enhancing LLM Reasoning Performance and Efficiency
- 2024To CoT or not to CoT? Chain-of-thought helps mainly on math and symbolic reasoning
- 2022Large Language Models Are Reasoning Teachers
- 2023Automatic Prompt Augmentation and Selection with Chain-of-Thought from Labeled Data
- 2024Break the Chain: Large Language Models Can be Shortcut Reasoners
- 2025CoT-RAG: Integrating Chain of Thought and Retrieval-Augmented Generation to Enhance Reasoning in Large Language Models
- 2025Understanding Chain-of-Thought Effectiveness in Code Generation: An Empirical and Information-Theoretic Analysis
- 2022Towards Understanding Chain-of-Thought Prompting: An Empirical Study of What Matters