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We present a number of positive and negative results for variants of the matroid secretary problem. Most notably, we design a constant-factor competitive algorithm for the "random assignment" model where the weights are assigned randomly to…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2011-12-13 Shayan Oveis Gharan , Jan Vondrák

A variant of the online knapsack problem is considered in the settings of trusted and untrusted predictions. In Unit Profit Knapsack, the items have unit profit, and it is easy to find an optimal solution offline: Pack as many of the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-03-02 Joan Boyar , Lene M. Favrholdt , Kim S. Larsen

Optimal stopping theory is a powerful tool for analyzing scenarios such as online auctions in which we generally require optimizing an objective function over the space of stopping rules for an allocation process under uncertainty. Perhaps…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-10-16 Hossein Esfandiari , MohammadTaghi Hajiaghayi , Vahid Liaghat , Morteza Monemizadeh

We define and study a new variant of the secretary problem. Whereas in the classic setting multiple secretaries compete for a single position, we study the case where the secretaries arrive one at a time and are assigned, in an on-line…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-05-05 Yakov Babichenko , Yuval Emek , Michal Feldman , Boaz Patt-Shamir , Ron Peretz , Rann Smorodinsky

We solve the secretary problem in the case that the ranked items arrive in a statistically biased order rather than in uniformly random order. The bias is given by the left-to-right-minimum exponentially tilted distribution with parameter…

Probability · Mathematics 2023-07-18 Ross G. Pinsky

We consider ordinal online problems, i.e., tasks that only require pairwise comparisons between elements of the input. A classic example is the secretary problem and the game of googol, as well as its multiple combinatorial extensions such…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-10-13 Nick Gravin , Enze Sun , Zhihao Gavin Tang

The prophet and secretary problems demonstrate online scenarios involving the optimal stopping theory. In a typical prophet or secretary problem, selection decisions are assumed to be immediate and irrevocable. However, many online settings…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-11-07 Tomer Ezra , Michal Feldman , Ilan Nehama

In the Prophet Secretary problem, samples from a known set of probability distributions arrive one by one in a uniformly random order, and an algorithm must irrevocably pick one of the samples as soon as it arrives. The goal is to maximize…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2017-11-07 Yossi Azar , Ashish Chiplunkar , Haim Kaplan

We consider a stochastic online problem where $n$ applicants arrive over time, one per time step. Upon arrival of each applicant their cost per time step is revealed, and we have to fix the duration of employment, starting immediately. This…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2017-05-31 Yann Disser , John Fearnley , Martin Gairing , Oliver Göbel , Max Klimm , Daniel Schmand , Alexander Skopalik , Andreas Tönnis

The $k$-Server Problem covers plenty of resource allocation scenarios, and several variations have been studied extensively for decades. We present a model generalizing the $k$-Server Problem by preferences of the requests, where the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-10-21 Jannik Castenow , Björn Feldkord , Till Knollmann , Manuel Malatyali , Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide

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

The time-optimal $k$-server problem minimizes the time spent serving all requests instead of the distances traveled. We give a lower bound of $2k-1$ on the competitive ratio of any deterministic online algorithm for this problem, which…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-03-10 Fabian Frei , Dennis Komm , Moritz Stocker , Philip Whittington

We study a generalization of the secretary problem, where decisions do not have to be made immediately upon candidates' arrivals. After arriving, each candidate stays in the system for some (random) amount of time and then leaves, whereupon…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-09-20 Thomas Kesselheim , Alexandros Psomas , Shai Vardi

The elements of a finite nonempty partially ordered set are exposed at independent uniform times in $[0,1]$ to a selector who, at any given time, can see the structure of the induced partial order on the exposed elements. The selector's…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2010-10-07 Ragnar Freij , Johan Wästlund

We study the classic single-choice prophet secretary problem through a resource augmentation lens. Our goal is to bound the $(1-\epsilon)$-competition complexity for different classes of online algorithms. This metric asks for the smallest…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-11-19 Tomer Ezra , Tamar Garbuz

A version of the classical secretary problem is studied, in which one is interested in selecting one of the b best out of a group of n differently ranked persons who are presented one by one in a random order. It is assumed that b is a…

Probability · Mathematics 2010-09-06 Chris Dietz , Dinard van der Laan , Ad Ridder

The J-choice K-best secretary problem, also known as the (J,K)-secretary problem, is a generalization of the classical secretary problem. An algorithm for the (J,K)-secretary problem is allowed to make J choices and the payoff to be…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2013-07-03 T-H. Hubert Chan , Fei Chen

The prophet secretary problem is a combination of the prophet inequality and the secretary problem, where elements are drawn from known independent distributions and arrive in uniformly random order. In this work, we design 1) a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-11-05 Ziyun Chen , Zhiyi Huang , Dongchen Li , Zhihao Gavin Tang

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

We analyze the competitive ratio and the advice complexity of the online unbounded knapsack problem. An instance is given as a sequence of n items with a size and a value each, and an algorithm has to decide how often to pack each item into…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-11-01 Hans-Joachim Böckenhauer , Matthias Gehnen , Juraj Hromkovič , Ralf Klasing , Dennis Komm , Henri Lotze , Daniel Mock , Peter Rossmanith , Moritz Stocker