mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Mask Is What DLLM Needs: A Masked Data Training Paradigm for Diffusion LLMs

arXiv 2603.15803 ↗First posted 16 Mar 2026cs.LGcited by 2

On the map: Diffusion models → Discrete and text diffusion

Abstract (arXiv)

Discrete diffusion models offer global context awareness and flexible parallel generation. However, uniform random noise schedulers in standard DLLM training overlook the highly non-uniform information density inherent in real-world sequences. This wastes optimization resources on low-density structural glues while leaving high-density logical pivot points severely under-optimized. To address this, we propose an Information Density Driven Smart Noise Scheduler. By extracting information-dense hubs and applying Complementary Priority Masking, our method decouples a single training instance into mutually reinforcing reasoning and syntax samples, forcing the model to master both logical deduction and foundational sequence structure. Experiments demonstrate that our approach improves average accuracy by ~4% across four Code and Math reasoning benchmarks, significantly outperforming uniform baselines. Mechanistic analyses further reveal that probabilistic priority masking effectively mitigates contextual collapse during block diffusion training. Overall, this density-aware strategy efficiently unlocks the reasoning potential of diffusion language models at minimal annotation cost, emerging as a promising new masked data training paradigm for Diffusion LLMs. Our processed dataset can be found at https://huggingface.co/datasets/malr07/opc-sft-stage2-dense-extracted.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Discrete and text diffusion, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 15 of its 18 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Mar 2026.

Builds on

15 of 18 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Block Diffusion: Interpolating Between Autoregressive and Diffusion Language Models12 Mar
  2. 2025Large Language Diffusion Models14 Feb

Other references · 13

  1. 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,204
  2. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,199
  3. 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 9,743
  4. 2020Scaling Laws for Neural Language Modelscited by 6,411
  5. 2023Let's Verify Step by Stepcited by 3,598
  6. 2021Program Synthesis with Large Language Modelscited by 3,509
  7. 2021Structured Denoising Diffusion Models in Discrete State-Spacescited by 1,665
  8. 2020CodeBERT: A Pre-Trained Model for Programming and Natural Languagescited by 1,286
  9. 2022MaskGIT: Masked Generative Image Transformercited by 1,082
  10. 2022Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesiscited by 1,023
  11. 2022Diffusion-LM Improves Controllable Text Generationcited by 1,006
  12. 2019SpanBERT: Improving Pre-training by Representing and Predicting Spanscited by 832
1 more
  1. 2024OpenCoder: The Open Cookbook for Top-Tier Code Large Language Modelscited by 127

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Pivot-SD: Efficient Self-Distillation for Masked Diffusion Language Models
  2. 2025Plan for Speed: Dilated Scheduling for Masked Diffusion Language Models
  3. 2026MDM-Prime-v2: Binary Encoding and Index Shuffling Enable Scaling of Diffusion Language Models
  4. 2026CAI-DLLM: Convergence Aware Inference for Diffusion Language Models
  5. 2026ρ-textttEOS: Training-free Bidirectional Variable-Length Control for Masked Diffusion LLMs
  6. 2026LogicDiff: Logic-Guided Denoising Improves Zero-Shot Reasoning in Masked Diffusion Language Models
  7. 2026Beyond Masks: Efficient, Flexible Diffusion Language Models via Deletion-Insertion Processes
  8. 2025Sequential Diffusion Language Models