A method includes causing a first set of memory cells, associated with a first wordline of a memory array, to be programmed with a first set of threshold voltage distributions; causing a second set of memory cells, associated with a second wordline adjacent to the first wordline, to be programmed with a second set of threshold voltage distributions; after programming the second set of cells, causing the first set of memory cells to be coarse programmed with an intermediate third set of threshold voltage distributions that is at least twice in number compared to the first set; and causing the first set of memory cells to be fine programmed with a final third set of threshold voltage distributions. At least some threshold voltage distributions of the final third set of threshold voltage distributions have wider read window margins than those of the intermediate third set of threshold voltage distributions.