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Related papers: Secretary Problems with Non-Uniform Arrival Order

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In this paper, we consider the online version of the machine minimization problem (introduced by Chuzhoy et al., FOCS 2004), where the goal is to schedule a set of jobs with release times, deadlines, and processing lengths on a minimum…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2014-03-06 Nikhil Devanur , Konstantin Makarychev , Debmalya Panigrahi , Grigory Yaroslavtsev

We study a variant of the secretary problem where candidates come from independent, not necessarily identical distributions known to us, and show that we can do at least as well as in the IID setting. This resolves a conjecture of…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-07-13 Pranav Nuti

We study the measure of order-competitive ratio introduced by Ezra et al. [2023] for online algorithms in Bayesian combinatorial settings. In our setting, a decision-maker observes a sequence of elements that are associated with stochastic…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-07 Tomer Ezra , Tamar Garbuz

We consider the classical online bipartite matching problem in the probe-commit model. In this problem, when an online vertex arrives, its edges must be probed to determine if they exist, based on known edge probabilities. A probing…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-12-16 Allan Borodin , Calum MacRury

In frequently repeated matching scenarios, individuals may require diversification in their choices. Therefore, when faced with a set of potential outcomes, each individual may have an ideal lottery over outcomes that represents their…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-04-29 Rasoul Ramezanian

The classical secretary problem investigates the question of how to hire the best secretary from $n$ candidates who come in a uniformly random order. In this work we investigate a parallel generalizations of this problem introduced by…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2014-09-18 Xiaoming Sun , Jia Zhang , Jialin Zhang

Suppose a set of requests arrives online: each request gives some value $v_i$ if accepted, but requires using some amount of each of $d$ resources. Our cost is a convex function of the vector of total utilization of these $d$ resources.…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2018-04-24 Anupam Gupta , Ruta Mehta , Marco Molinaro

The Santa Claus problem is a fundamental problem in fair division: the goal is to partition a set of heterogeneous items among heterogeneous agents so as to maximize the minimum value of items received by any agent. In this paper, we study…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-03-07 MohammadTaghi Hajiaghayi , MohammadReza Khani , Debmalya Panigrahi , Max Springer

The game of best choice (or "secretary problem") is a model for making an irrevocable decision among a fixed number of candidate choices that are presented sequentially in random order, one at a time. Because the classically optimal…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-07-14 Brant Jones , Katelynn D. Kochalski , Sarah Loeb , Julia C. Walk

Best-Fit is one of the most prominent and practically used algorithms for the bin packing problem, where a set of items with associated sizes needs to be packed in the minimum number of unit-capacity bins. Kenyon [SODA '96] studied online…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-01-10 Anish Hebbar , Arindam Khan , K. V. N. Sreenivas

Many allocation problems in multiagent systems rely on agents specifying cardinal preferences. However, allocation mechanisms can be sensitive to small perturbations in cardinal preferences, thus causing agents who make ``small" or…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-07-13 Vijay Menon , Kate Larson

In numerous online selection problems, decision-makers (DMs) must allocate on the fly limited resources to customers with uncertain values. The DM faces the tension between allocating resources to currently observed values and saving them…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-04 Yihua Xu , Süleyman Kerimov , Sebastian Perez-Salazar

Allocating scarce, indivisible resources to diverse groups under uncertainty is a central challenge in operations research, where efficiency-focused methods often underserve marginalized populations. We study the Fair Online Resource…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-06 Igor Averbakh , Hongyi Jiang , Samitha Samaranayake , Akang Wang , Jianghua Wu

We present prior robust algorithms for a large class of resource allocation problems where requests arrive one-by-one (online), drawn independently from an unknown distribution at every step. We design a single algorithm that, for every…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-03-12 Nikhil R. Devanur , Kamal Jain , Balasubramanian Sivan , Christopher A. Wilkens

In this paper, we present a novel method for computing the asymptotic values of both the optimal threshold, and the probability of success in sequences of optimal stopping problems. This method, based on the resolution of a first-order…

Probability · Mathematics 2022-05-18 L. Bayón , P. Fortuny , J. M. Grau , A. M. Oller-Marcén , M. M. Ruiz

In a prophet inequality problem, $n$ independent random variables are presented to a gambler one by one. The gambler decides when to stop the sequence and obtains the most recent value as reward. We evaluate a stopping rule by the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-11-16 Andrés Cristi , Bruno Ziliotto

In this work, we study the single-choice prophet inequality problem, where a gambler faces a sequence of~$n$ online i.i.d. random variables drawn from an unknown distribution. When a variable reveals its value, the gambler needs to decide…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-08-23 Bo Li , Xiaowei Wu , Yutong Wu

We consider the problem of online load balancing under lp-norms: sequential jobs need to be assigned to one of the machines and the goal is to minimize the lp-norm of the machine loads. This generalizes the classical problem of scheduling…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-10-31 Marco Molinaro

We initiate the study of centralized algorithms for welfare-maximizing allocation of goods to buyers subject to average-value constraints. We show that this problem is NP-hard to approximate beyond a factor of $\frac{e}{e-1}$, and provide a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-09-09 Kshipra Bhawalkar , Zhe Feng , Anupam Gupta , Aranyak Mehta , David Wajc , Di Wang

We consider Online Minimum Bipartite Matching under the uniform metric. We show that Randomized Greedy achieves a competitive ratio equal to $(1+1/n) (H_{n+1}-1)$, which matches the lower bound. Comparing with the fact that RG achieves an…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2021-12-13 Sharmila Duppala , Karthik A. Sankararaman , Pan Xu