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The classical analysis of online algorithms, due to its worst-case nature, can be quite pessimistic when the input instance at hand is far from worst-case. Often this is not an issue with machine learning approaches, which shine in…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2020-10-22 Antonios Antoniadis , Themis Gouleakis , Pieter Kleer , Pavel Kolev

In the Secretary Problem, one has to hire the best among n candidates. The candidates are interviewed, one at a time, at a random order, and one has to decide on the spot, whether to hire a candidate or continue interviewing. It is well…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-07-23 Moran Feldman , Rani Izsak

We study the submodular secretary problem with a cardinality constraint. In this problem, $n$ candidates for secretaries appear sequentially in random order. At the arrival of each candidate, a decision maker must irrevocably decide whether…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-05-14 Kaito Fujii

Contention resolution schemes have proven to be a useful and unifying abstraction for a variety of constrained optimization problems, in both offline and online arrival models. Much of prior work restricts attention to product distributions…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2020-04-30 Shaddin Dughmi

In the matroid secretary problem, elements $N := [n]$ of a matroid $\mathcal{M} \subseteq 2^N$ arrive in random order. When an element arrives, its weight is revealed and a choice must be made to accept or reject the element, subject to the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-12-09 Rishi Gujjar , Kevin Hua , Robert Kleinberg , Frederick V. Qiu

In many submodular optimization applications, datasets are naturally partitioned into disjoint subsets. These scenarios give rise to submodular optimization problems with partition-based constraints, where the desired solution set should be…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-01-21 Wenjing Chen , Yixin Chen , Victoria G. Crawford

We introduce the notion of an online matroid embedding, which is an algorithm for mapping an unknown matroid that is revealed in an online fashion to a larger-but-known matroid. We establish the existence of such an embedding for binary…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-10-20 Andrés Cristi , Paul Dütting , Robert Kleinberg , Renato Paes Leme , Neel Patel

In the secretary problem we are faced with an online sequence of elements with values. Upon seeing an element we have to make an irrevocable take-it-or-leave-it decision. The goal is to maximize the probability of picking the element of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-11-17 José Correa , Andrés Cristi , Laurent Feuilloley , Tim Oosterwijk , Alexandros Tsigonias-Dimitriadis

We study random order semi-streaming algorithms for submodular maximization under a wide range of combinatorial constraint classes, including matroids, matroid $p$-parity, $p$-exchange systems and $p$-systems. For most of these classes of…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-05-15 Niv Buchbinder , Moran Feldman , Siyue Liu , Sherry Sarkar

Catering to the incentives of people with limited rationality is a challenging research direction that requires novel paradigms to design mechanisms and approximation algorithms. Obviously strategyproof (OSP) mechanisms have recently…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2018-10-10 Diodato Ferraioli , Adrian Meier , Paolo Penna , Carmine Ventre

In the Matroid Secretary Problem, introduced by Babaioff et al. [SODA 2007], the elements of a given matroid are presented to an online algorithm in random order. When an element is revealed, the algorithm learns its weight and decides…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2010-07-27 José A. Soto

The study of the prophet inequality problem in the limited information regime was initiated by Azar et al. [SODA'14] in the pursuit of prior-independent posted-price mechanisms. As they show, $O(1)$-competitive policies are achievable using…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-11-24 Constantine Caramanis , Matthew Faw , Orestis Papadigenopoulos , Emmanouil Pountourakis

We study online secretary problems with returns in combinatorial packing domains with $n$ candidates that arrive sequentially over time in random order. The goal is to accept a feasible packing of candidates of maximum total value. In the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2020-02-06 Martin Hoefer , Lisa Wilhelmi

The minimum linear ordering problem (MLOP) generalizes well-known combinatorial optimization problems such as minimum linear arrangement and minimum sum set cover. MLOP seeks to minimize an aggregated cost $f(\cdot)$ due to an ordering…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-10-30 Majid Farhadi , Swati Gupta , Shengding Sun , Prasad Tetali , Michael C. Wigal

Online advertising has motivated interest in online selection problems. Displaying ads to the right users benefits both the platform (e.g., via pay-per-click) and the advertisers (by increasing their reach). In practice, not all users click…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-08-16 Sebastian Perez-Salazar , Mohit Singh , Alejandro Toriello

We study a learning-augmented variant of the secretary problem, recently introduced by Fujii and Yoshida (2023), in which the decision-maker has access to machine-learned predictions of candidate values. The central challenge is to balance…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-01-13 Helia Karisani , Mohammadreza Daneshvaramoli , Hedyeh Beyhaghi , Mohammad Hajiesmaili , Cameron Musco

In the online random-arrival model, an algorithm receives a sequence of n requests that arrive in a random order. The algorithm is expected to make an irrevocable decision with regard to each request based only on the observed history. We…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2014-07-08 Shai Vardi

The well-known secretary problem in sequential analysis and optimal stopping theory asks one to maximize the probability of finding the optimal candidate in a sequentially examined list under the constraint that accept/reject decisions are…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-07-13 Xujun Liu , Olgica Milenkovic

The Matroid Secretary Problem is a central question in online optimization, modeling sequential decision-making under combinatorial constraints. We introduce a bipartite graph framework that unifies and extends several known formulations,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-11-07 Kristóf Bérczi , Vasilis Livanos , José A. Soto , Victor Verdugo

Whereas there are simple algorithms that are proven to be optimal for the Classical and the Multiple Choice Secretary Problem, the Matroid Secretary Problem is less thoroughly understood. This paper proposes the generalization of some…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-11-08 Simon Park