mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Solvita: Enhancing Large Language Models for Competitive Programming via Agentic Evolution

arXiv 2605.15301 ↗First posted 14 May 2026cs.AIcited by 3

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) still struggle with the rigorous reasoning demands of hard competitive programming. While recent multi-agent frameworks attempt to bridge this reliability gap, they remain fundamentally stateless: they rely on static retrieval and discard the valuable problem-solving and debugging experience gained from previous tasks. To address this, we present Solvita, an agentic evolution framework that enables continuous learning without requiring weight updates to the underlying LLM. Solvita reorganizes problem-solving into a closed-loop system of strategy selection, program synthesis, certified supervision, and targeted hacking, executed by four specialized agents: Planner, Solver, Oracle, and Hacker. Crucially, each agent is paired with a trainable, graph-structured knowledge network. As the system operates, outcome signals, such as pass/fail verdicts, test certification quality, and adversarial vulnerabilities discovered by the Hacker, are recast as reinforcement learning updates to these network weights. This allows the agents to dynamically route future queries based on past successes and failures, effectively accumulating transferable reasoning experience over time. Evaluated across CodeContests, APPS, AetherCode, and live Codeforces rounds, Solvita establishes a new state-of-the-art among code-generation agents, outperforming existing multi-agent pipelines and nearly doubling the accuracy of single-pass baselines.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 42 of its 49 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 May 2026.

Builds on

42 of 49 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Experiential Co-Learning of Software-Developing Agents28 Dec
  2. 2023Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Models6 Oct
  3. 2023ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learners20 Aug
  4. 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework1 Aug

Other references · 38

  1. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,396
  2. 2020Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Taskscited by 9,297
  3. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,320
  4. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
  5. 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedbackcited by 3,442
  6. 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,211
  7. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,191
  8. 2024LiveCodeBench: Holistic and Contamination Free Evaluation of Large Language Models for Codecited by 2,004
  9. 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversationcited by 1,988
  10. 2024SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineeringcited by 1,737
  11. 2022Competition-Level Code Generation with AlphaCodecited by 1,462
  12. 2023Is Your Code Generated by ChatGPT Really Correct? Rigorous Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 1,391
26 more
  1. 2023MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systemscited by 1,389
  2. 2023Encouraging Divergent Thinking in Large Language Models through Multi-Agent Debatecited by 1,011
  3. 2023Teaching Large Language Models to Self-Debugcited by 988
  4. 2022STaR: Bootstrapping Reasoning With Reasoningcited by 940
  5. 2023ChatDev: Communicative Agents for Software Developmentcited by 919
  6. 2021Measuring Coding Challenge Competence With APPScited by 902
  7. 2023Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Modelscited by 886
  8. 2024A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agentscited by 634
  9. 2020Heterogeneous Graph Transformercited by 582
  10. 2022CodeT: Code Generation with Generated Testscited by 384
  11. 2022CodeRL: Mastering Code Generation through Pretrained Models and Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 358
  12. 2023Is Self-Repair a Silver Bullet for Code Generation?cited by 197
  13. 2023An Empirical Evaluation of Using Large Language Models for Automated Unit Test Generationcited by 194
  14. 2023Planning with Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 182
  15. 2024MapCoder: Multi-Agent Code Generation for Competitive Problem Solvingcited by 177
  16. 2023Self-Taught Optimizer (STOP): Recursively Self-Improving Code Generationcited by 148
  17. 2025CodeElo: Benchmarking Competition-level Code Generation of LLMs with Human-comparable Elo Ratingscited by 115
  18. 2022Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Fuzzers: Fuzzing Deep-Learning Libraries via Large Language Modelscited by 103
  19. 2024Code Generation with AlphaCodium: From Prompt Engineering to Flow Engineeringcited by 103
  20. 2024A Survey on Self-Evolution of Large Language Modelscited by 91
  21. 2024Can Language Models Solve Olympiad Programming?cited by 72
  22. 2022Parsel: Algorithmic Reasoning with Language Models by Composing Decompositionscited by 64
  23. 2023CodeChain: Towards Modular Code Generation Through Chain of Self-revisions with Representative Sub-modulescited by 58
  24. 2025CodeContests+: High-Quality Test Case Generation for Competitive Programmingcited by 46
  25. 2025AetherCode: Evaluating LLMs' Ability to Win In Premier Programming Competitionscited by 11
  26. 2026CodeHacker: Automated Test Case Generation for Detecting Vulnerabilities in Competitive Programming Solutionscited by 8

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026MetaEvo: A Meta-Optimization Framework for Experience-Driven Agent Evolution
  2. 2026Scaling Agentic Verifier for Competitive Coding
  3. 2025Multi-Agent Evolve: LLM Self-Improve through Co-evolution
  4. 2025Agent0: Unleashing Self-Evolving Agents from Zero Data via Tool-Integrated Reasoning
  5. 2026MAGE: Multi-Agent Self-Evolution with Co-Evolutionary Knowledge Graphs
  6. 2026FreeEvolve: Learning to Evolve Beyond Fixed Loops
  7. 2025CATArena: Evaluating Evolutionary Capabilities of Code Agents via Iterative Tournaments
  8. 2024AgentGym: Evolving Large Language Model-based Agents across Diverse Environments