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Related papers: Secretary problem: graphs, matroids and greedoids

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In this paper we revisit the basic variant of the classical secretary problem. We propose a new approach in which we separate between an agent that evaluates the secretary performance and one that has to make the hiring decision. The…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-05-27 Niklas Hahn , Martin Hoefer , Rann Smorodinsky

In the classical secretary problem, $n$ ranked items arrive one by one, and each item's rank relative to its predecessors is noted. The observer must select or reject each item as it arrives, with the object of selecting the item of highest…

Probability · Mathematics 2023-07-21 Ross G. Pinsky , Tomer Zilca

The secretary problem is one of the fundamental problems in online decision making; a tight competitive ratio for this problem of $1/\mathrm{e} \approx 0.368$ has been known since the 1960s. Much more recently, the study of algorithms with…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-10-01 Alexander Braun , Sherry Sarkar

As a famous result, the ``37\% Law'' for Secretary Problem has widely influenced peoples' perception on online decision strategies about choice. However, using this strategy, too many attractive candidates may be rejected in the first 37\%,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-07-15 Zishuo Zhao

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

A greedoid is a generalization of a matroid allowing for more flexible analyses and modeling of combinatorial optimization problems. However, these structures decimate many matroid properties contributing to their pervasive nature. A…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-01-15 Robert Streit , Vijay K. Garg

We consider the rank reduction problem for matroids: Given a matroid M and an integer k, find a minimum size subset of elements of M whose removal reduces the rank of M by at least k. When M is a graphical matroid this problem is the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2021-12-23 Gwenaël Joret , Adrian Vetta

We revisit the problem of selecting an item from $n$ choices that appear before us in random sequential order so as to minimize the expected rank of the item selected. In particular, we examine the stopping rule where we reject the first…

Probability · Mathematics 2015-12-10 Béla Bajnok , Svetoslav Semov

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

We present a formal analysis, in Isabelle/HOL, of optimisation algorithms for matroids, which are useful generalisations of combinatorial structures that occur in optimisation, and greedoids, which are a generalisation of matroids. Although…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-07-01 Mohammad Abdulaziz , Thomas Ammer , Shriya Meenakshisundaram , Adem Rimpapa

The Secretary problem is a classical sequential decision-making question that can be succinctly described as follows: a set of rank-ordered applicants are interviewed sequentially for a single position. Once an applicant is interviewed, an…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-03-07 Xujun Liu , Olgica Milenkovic , George V. Moustakides

The secretary problem or the game of Googol are classic models for online selection problems that have received significant attention in the last five decades. We consider a variant of the problem and explore its connections to data-driven…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-07-16 José Correa , Andrés Cristi , Boris Epstein , José A. Soto

We consider a generalization of the secretary problem where contracts are temporary, and for a fixed duration. This models online hiring of temporary employees, or online auctions for re-usable resources. The problem is related to the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-07-09 Amos Fiat , Ilia Gorelik , Haim Kaplan , Slava Novgorodov

For $2\le k\in\mathbb{N}$, consider the following adaptation of the classical secretary problem. There are $k$ items at each of $n$ linearly ordered ranks. The $kn$ items are revealed, one item at a time, in a uniformly random order, to an…

Probability · Mathematics 2022-08-24 Ross G. Pinsky

In the classical secretary problem, one attempts to find the maximum of an unknown and unlearnable distribution through sequential search. In many real-world searches, however, distributions are not entirely unknown and can be learned…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-08-30 Daniel G. Goldstein , R. Preston McAfee , Siddharth Suri , James R. Wright

The investigation of width parameters in both graph and algebraic contexts has attracted considerable interest. Among these parameters, the linear branch width has emerged as a crucial measure. In this concise paper, we explore the concept…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-03-03 Takaaki Fujita

We study a twist on the classic secretary problem, which we term the secretary ranking problem: elements from an ordered set arrive in random order and instead of picking the maximum element, the algorithm is asked to assign a rank, or…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2018-11-16 Sepehr Assadi , Eric Balkanski , Renato Paes Leme

In this paper, we investigate two variants of the secretary problem. In these variants, we are presented with a sequence of numbers $X_i$ that come from distributions $\mathcal{D}_i$, and that arrive in either random or adversarial order.…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-08-22 Pranav Nuti , Jan Vondrák

We study a variation of the game of best choice (also known as the secretary problem or game of googol) under an additional assumption that the ranks of interview candidates are restricted using permutation pattern-avoidance. We develop…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2018-12-04 Brant Jones

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