Wenqi Jiang

Author directory

2026

Self-evolution methods enhance code generation through iterative ”generate-verify-refine” cycles, yet existing approaches suffer from low exploration efficiency, failing to discover algorithmically superior solutions within limited budgets. We identify the root cause as the lack of systematic controllability: execution feedback is not reliably converted into targeted search decisions across route planning, edit granularity, and experience reuse. We propose Controlled Self-Evolution (CSE), a framework that couples three components into an integrated control architecture. Diversified Planning Initialization provides route diversity through structurally distinct algorithmic strategies. Modular Evolution provides feedback attribution and module-level editing by decomposing programs into functional modules and applying targeted mutation and compositional crossover. Hierarchical Evolution Memory maintains search state within tasks and distills reusable optimization patterns across tasks. Experiments on EffiBench-X demonstrate that CSE consistently outperforms all baselines across various LLM backbones. Further analysis reveals non-additive synergy among control layers, confirming that CSE’s effectiveness arises from component coupling rather than independent contributions. The code and evaluation implementation are publicly available at https://github.com/QuantaAlpha/EvoControl.