Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A wireless device may initiate a successive decoding process for an encoded code block received at the wireless device, and generate, using a successive decoder, one or more candidate paths for a first portion of the code block, where the first portion of the code block includes a first data portion and a first data check portion. The wireless device may then perform a checking function on respective first data portions for the one or more candidate paths using respective first data check portions, and determine whether to terminate the successive decoding process prior to completing decoding of the encoded code block based at least in part on determining whether the checking function for each of the one or more candidate paths for the first data portion has failed the checking function.