Themis: Automated Constraint-Aware Test Synthesis Framework for Code Reinforcement Learning

Abstract

Reinforcement learning (RL) has shown promise for enhancing code generation capabilities in large language models (LLMs), yet its effectiveness critically depends on high-quality test suites for reliable reward signals. Current approaches suffer from inadequate test case quantity and quality, leading to false positives (incorrect solutions passing verification) and slow positives (valid but suboptimal implementations), which corrupt RL training dynamics. We address these challenges through three key contributions: (1) We systematically analyze how low-quality test suites degrade Code RL performance via reward misalignment; (2) We propose Themis, an automated framework that transforms test case generation into code synthesis—first extracting problem constraints via template-guided parsing, then generating executable test generators through LLM-powered code synthesis, and finally validating tests through constraint-aware filtering; (3) We develop an error-guided test case reduction method that preserves error detection efficacy while reducing test set cardinality, thereby enhancing reinforcement learning training efficiency. Evaluated on programming competition datasets, Themis achieves 95 percent error detection rates, outperforming original test suites in most of the cases. When integrated into RL pipelines, models trained with Themis-generated tests demonstrate consistent 3-5 percent improvements across HumanEval, MBPP, and LiveCodeBench compared to the baseline, matching performance levels achieved with manually curated test suites. Our constraint-aware test synthesis framework ensures full automation while preserving semantic validity—critical for scaling RL training to complex code generation tasks. The framework's modular design also enables seamless integration with existing code data synthesis frameworks.