When Many-Shot Prompting Fails: An Empirical Study of LLM Code Translation

arXiv — cs.CLWednesday, December 10, 2025 at 5:00:00 AM
  • A recent empirical study on Large Language Models (LLMs) has revealed that the effectiveness of many-shot prompting for code translation may be overstated. Analyzing over 90,000 translations, researchers found that while more examples can improve static similarity metrics, functional correctness peaks with fewer examples, indicating a 'many-shot paradox'.
  • This finding is significant for software engineering, as it suggests that providing a limited number of high-quality examples can lead to better outcomes in code translation tasks, challenging the prevailing assumption that more examples always enhance performance.
  • The study highlights broader issues within LLMs, including inconsistencies in belief updating and action alignment, as well as challenges in understanding code. These findings contribute to ongoing discussions about the reliability and effectiveness of LLMs in various applications, emphasizing the need for careful evaluation of their capabilities.
— via World Pulse Now AI Editorial System

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