Described herein are embodiments related to first-pass continuous read level calibration (cRLC) operations on memory cells of memory systems. A processing device determines that a first programming pass of a programming operation has been performed on a memory cell of a memory component. The processing device performs a cRLC operation on the memory cell to calibrate a read level threshold between a first first-pass programming distribution and a second first-pass programming distribution before a second programming pass of the programming operation is performed on the memory cell.