AlgoSimBench: Identifying Algorithmically Similar Problems for Competitive Programming

Abstract

Recent reasoning-enhanced Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved promising results in solving complex competitive programming problems. However, it remains unclear whether these reasoning abilities generalize to relevant tasks, like identifying algorithmically similar problems (ASPs). We introduce AlgoSimBench, a benchmark of 402 multiple-choice questions curated in an adversarial setting: each given reference problem is paired with one algorithmically similar problem and three distractors that are semantically close but algorithmically dissimilar. This design forces models to rely on algorithmic reasoning rather than superficial textual cues. Our evaluation shows that LLMs consistently struggle under this setting. To address this gap, we propose Attempted Solution Matching (ASM), which leverages LLM-generated solution attempts to assess similarity, yielding an average accuracy improvement of 9% across models. Beyond LLM evaluation, AlgoSimBench also probes code retrieval methods; when combined with BM25, ASM achieves an additional 11.8% gain over state-of-the-art embedding models. AlgoSimBench offers a challenging testbed that facilitates future studies on LLMs and retrieval methods.