Serena Caraco

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2026-183

May 15, 2026

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2026/EECS-2026-183.pdf

Faded Parsons problems are a format of problem in which students reconstruct short pieces of code by filling in blanks ("fades") and rearranging pre-written scrambled lines of code. Faded Parsons are a variant of Parsons problem, which were initially proposed to scaffold formative syntax learning and later evolved as a means of targeting specific skills in mastery-based summative assessments.

We trace the development of Faded Parsons problems from their origins in Parsons problems to their use as a pedagogical tool in computing education. We organize the research into phases to show how the format evolved from formative exercises in introductory courses to more specialized uses in summative assessment and mastery-based software engineering instruction.

We argue that Faded Parsons problems are valuable not because they always outperform traditional alternatives on learning gains, but because they preserve scaffolding while reintroducing enough generative work to support pattern transfer. We present the suite of tools developed at Berkeley to support Faded Parsons in our software engineering classes.

Finally, we examine the practical constraints that shaped this work, including accessibility requirements, authoring complexity, and the limits of attempts to build a generalized mutation autograder. Together, these developments show how a pedagogical idea matured into a deployable assessment tool, while also revealing the engineering tradeoffs required to make it viable at scale.

Advisors: Armando Fox

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BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Caraco:EECS-2026-183,
    Author= {Caraco, Serena},
    Editor= {Fox, Armando and Garcia, Dan},
    Title= {Designing and Deploying Faded Parsons Problems for Scalable, Mastery-Based Software Engineering Education},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2026},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2026/EECS-2026-183.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2026-183},
    Abstract= {*Faded Parsons problems* are a format of problem in which students reconstruct short pieces of code by filling in blanks ("fades") and rearranging pre-written scrambled lines of code.
Faded Parsons are a variant of *Parsons problem*, which were initially proposed to scaffold formative syntax learning and later evolved as a means of targeting specific skills in mastery-based summative assessments.

We trace the development of Faded Parsons problems from their origins in Parsons problems to their use as a pedagogical tool in computing education.
We organize the research into phases to show how the format evolved from formative exercises in introductory courses to more specialized uses in summative assessment and mastery-based software engineering instruction.

We argue that Faded Parsons problems are valuable not because they always outperform traditional alternatives on learning gains, but because they preserve scaffolding while reintroducing enough generative work to support pattern transfer.
We present the suite of tools developed at Berkeley to support Faded Parsons in our software engineering classes.

Finally, we examine the practical constraints that shaped this work, including accessibility requirements, authoring complexity, and the limits of attempts to build a generalized mutation autograder.
Together, these developments show how a pedagogical idea matured into a deployable assessment tool, while also revealing the engineering tradeoffs required to make it viable at scale.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Caraco, Serena 
%E Fox, Armando 
%E Garcia, Dan 
%T Designing and Deploying Faded Parsons Problems for Scalable, Mastery-Based Software Engineering Education
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2026
%8 May 15
%@ UCB/EECS-2026-183
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2026/EECS-2026-183.html
%F Caraco:EECS-2026-183