A memory system to store multiple bits of data in a memory cell. After receiving the data bits, a memory device coarsely programs a threshold voltage of the memory cell to a first level representative of a combination of bit values according to a mapping between combinations of bit values and threshold levels. The threshold levels are partitioned into a plurality of groups, each containing a subset of the threshold levels. A group identification of a first group, among the plurality of groups, containing the first level is determined for the memory cell. The memory device reads, using the group identification, a subset of the data bits back from the first memory cell, and combines the bits of the group identification and the subset to recover the entire set of data bits to finely program the threshold voltage of the memory cell to represent the data bits.