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OptPO: Optimal Rollout Allocation for Test-time Policy Optimization

Machine Learning 2025-12-03 v1 Artificial Intelligence Computation and Language

Abstract

Test-time policy optimization enables large language models (LLMs) to adapt to distribution shifts by leveraging feedback from self-generated rollouts. However, existing methods rely on fixed-budget majority voting to estimate rewards, incurring substantial computational redundancy. We propose Optimal Rollout Allocation for Test-time Policy Optimization (OptPO), a principled framework that adaptively allocates inference budgets. By formulating the voting process as a Bayesian sequential probability ratio test, OptPO dynamically halts sampling once the posterior confidence in a consensus answer exceeds a specified threshold. Crucially, it utilizes the retained rollouts for on-policy updates, seamlessly integrating with algorithms like PPO or GRPO without requiring ground-truth labels. Across diverse reasoning benchmarks, OptPO significantly reduces rollout overhead compared to fixed-sample baselines while preserving or improving accuracy. By unifying statistically optimal stopping with test-time learning, OptPO offers a computationally efficient paradigm for test-time adaptation. The source code will be open upon acceptance at https://open-upon-acceptance.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.02882,
  title  = {OptPO: Optimal Rollout Allocation for Test-time Policy Optimization},
  author = {Youkang Wang and Jian Wang and Rubing Chen and Tianyi Zeng and Xiao-Yong Wei and Qing Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.02882},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Work in Progress

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:05:54.231Z