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We consider generalizations of the classical secretary problem, also known as the problem of optimal choice, to posets where the only information we have is the size of the poset and the number of maximal elements. We show that, given this…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2012-06-29 Bryn Garrod , Robert Morris

The \emph{Temp Secretary Problem} was recently introduced by Fiat et al. It is a generalization of the Secretary Problem, in which commitments are temporary for a fixed duration. We present a simple online algorithm with improved…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-06-23 Thomas Kesselheim , Andreas Tönnis

We study \emph{combinatorial procurement auctions}, where a buyer with a valuation function $v$ and budget $B$ wishes to buy a set of items. Each item $i$ has a cost $c_i$ and the buyer is interested in a set $S$ that maximizes $v(S)$…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-19 Ashwinkumar Badanidiyuru , Shahar Dobzinski , Sigal Oren

In this paper, we study sequential auctions with two budget constrained bidders and any number of identical items. All prior results on such auctions consider only two items. We construct a canonical outcome of the auction that is the only…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-09-11 Zhiyi Huang , Nikhil R. Devanur , David Malec

In combinatorial auctions, a designer must decide how to allocate a set of indivisible items amongst a set of bidders. Each bidder has a valuation function which gives the utility they obtain from any subset of the items. Our focus is…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-03-31 Shaddin Dughmi , Bryan Wilder

We devise a general graph-theoretic framework for studying prophet inequalities. In this framework, an agent traverses a directed acyclic graph from a starting node $s$ to a target node $t$. Each edge has a value that is sampled from a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-06-21 Andrés Cristi , Sigal Oren

Recently, a randomized mechanism has been discovered [Dughmi, Roughgarden and Yan; STOC'11] for combinatorial auctions that is truthful in expectation and guarantees a (1-1/e)-approximation to the optimal social welfare when players have…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2011-09-07 Shaddin Dughmi , Jan Vondrak

In this paper we consider two variants of the Secretary problem: The Best-or-Worst and the Postdoc problems. We extend previous work by considering that the number of objects is not known and follows either a discrete Uniform distribution…

Probability · Mathematics 2018-11-13 L. Bayon , P. Fortuny , J. M. Grau , M. M Ruiz , M. A. Oller-Marcen

We consider two variations of the classical secretary problem. * A variation of the returning secretary problem where each interviewee may appear a second time with a fixed probability p. The decision-maker observes interviewees…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-04-13 Sarthak Agrawal , Sanjeev Saxena

We revisit the knapsack-secretary problem (Babaioff et al.; APPROX 2007), a generalization of the classic secretary problem in which items have different sizes and multiple items may be selected if their total size does not exceed the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-08-11 Andreas Abels , Leon Ladewig , Kevin Schewior , Moritz Stinzendörfer

Online contention resolution schemes (OCRSs) were proposed by Feldman, Svensson, and Zenklusen as a generic technique to round a fractional solution in the matroid polytope in an online fashion. It has found applications in several…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2018-06-26 Euiwoong Lee , Sahil Singla

This paper considers a finite horizon optimal stopping problem for a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables, where the objective is to design stopping rules that attempt to select the random variable with the…

Probability · Mathematics 2026-05-20 Alexander Goldenshluger , Yaakov Malinovsky , Assaf Zeevi

In this paper we consider the so-called Multi-returning secretary problem, a version of the Secretary problem in which each candidate has $m$ identical copies. The case $m=2$ has already been completely solved by several authors using…

Probability · Mathematics 2020-10-16 L. Bayon , P. Fortuny , J. M. Grau , A. Oller Marcen , M. M. Ruiz

When allocating indivisible items to agents, it is known that the only strategyproof mechanisms that satisfy a set of rather mild conditions are constrained serial dictatorships: given a fixed order over agents, at each step the designated…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-02-28 Sylvain Bouveret , Hugo Gilbert , Jérôme Lang , Guillaume Méroué

We consider Bayesian online selection problem of a matching in bipartite graphs, i.e., online weighted matching problem with edge arrivals where online algorithm knows distributions of weights, that corresponds to the intersection of two…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-02-19 Nick Gravin , Hongao Wang

Combinatorial Auctions are a central problem in Algorithmic Mechanism Design: pricing and allocating goods to buyers with complex preferences in order to maximize some desired objective (e.g., social welfare, revenue, or profit). The…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-19 Avrim Blum , Anupam Gupta , Yishay Mansour , Ankit Sharma

We show that a simple greedy algorithm is $4.75$ probability-competitive for the Laminar Matroid Secretary Problem, improving the $3\sqrt{3} \approx 5.196$-competitive algorithm based on the forbidden sets technique (Soto, Turkieltaub, and…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-07-03 Zhiyi Huang , Zahra Parsaeian , Zixuan Zhu

We model a procurement scenario in which two \textit{imperfect} bidders act simultaneously on behalf of a single buyer, a configuration common in display advertising and referred to as \textit{side-by-side bidding} but largely unexplored in…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-12-05 Benjamin Heymann

We study the problem of selection in the context of Bayesian persuasion. We are given multiple agents with hidden values (or quality scores), to whom resources must be allocated by a welfare-maximizing decision-maker. An intermediary with…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-18 Yannan Bai , Kamesh Munagala , Yiheng Shen , Davidson Zhu

Complements between goods - where one good takes on added value in the presence of another - have been a thorn in the side of algorithmic mechanism designers. On the one hand, complements are common in the standard motivating applications…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-05-21 Ittai Abraham , Moshe Babaioff , Shaddin Dughmi , Tim Roughgarden