Jurnal Teknologi Informasi dan Pendidikan
Vol. 19 No. 2 (2026): Jurnal Teknologi Informasi dan Pendidikan

A Multi-Indicator AST-Based Approach for Code Similarity Detection in Programming Education

Rizky Pamuji (Universitas Lambung Mangkurat)
R Ati Sukmawati (Universitas Lambung Mangkurat)
Novan Alkaf Bahraini Saputra (Universitas Lambung Mangkurat)
Rita Zubaidah (Universitas Lambung Mangkurat)
Muhammad Nur Fadhillah (Universitas Lambung Mangkurat)



Article Info

Publish Date
26 Jun 2026

Abstract

Evaluation of programming assignments in higher education often faces challenges in ensuring code originality, particularly when students apply cosmetic modifications such as renaming identifiers or altering formatting and comments. This study proposes a multi-indicator code similarity detection system based on Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) analysis to support more objective assessment of programming tasks. The proposed approach analyzes structural, logical, and stylistic aspects of Python programs, combining AST-based analysis with string similarity techniques for comment evaluation. A configurable weighting mechanism is introduced to allow flexible adjustment of similarity assessment according to different evaluation objectives. Experimental results on student programming assignments demonstrate that the system effectively distinguishes varying levels of code similarity and provides consistent similarity measurements. In addition, block-level analysis enables more fine-grained identification of similar code segments. The findings indicate that the proposed method is robust against cosmetic code modifications and can support more systematic and transparent programming assessment in educational contexts.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

tip

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Control & Systems Engineering Education Engineering

Description

Jurnal Teknologi Informasi dan Pendidikan (JTIP) is a scientific journal managed by Universitas Negeri Padang and in collaboration with APTEKINDO, born from 2008. JTIP publishes scientific research articles that discuss all fields of computer science and all related to computers. JTIP is published ...