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In the online sorting problem, $n$ items are revealed one by one and have to be placed (immediately and irrevocably) into empty cells of a size-$n$ array. The goal is to minimize the sum of absolute differences between items in consecutive…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-06-28 Mikkel Abrahamsen , Ioana O. Bercea , Lorenzo Beretta , Jonas Klausen , László Kozma

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

Consider a gambler who observes a sequence of independent, non-negative random numbers and is allowed to stop the sequence at any time, claiming a reward equal to the most recent observation. The famous prophet inequality of Krengel,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2012-01-24 Robert Kleinberg , S. Matthew Weinberg

We consider the budgeted matroid independent set problem. The input is a ground set, where each element has a cost and a non-negative profit, along with a matroid over the elements and a budget. The goal is to select a subset of elements…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-09-13 Ilan Doron-Arad , Ariel Kulik , Hadas Shachnai

In the secretary problem of Cayley (1875) and Moser (1956), $n$ non-negative, independent, random variables with common distribution are sequentially presented to a decision maker who decides when to stop and collect the most recent…

Probability · Mathematics 2019-10-22 Alessandro Arlotto , Itai Gurvich

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

In this paper we consider several related online computation problems. First, we study answering sequences of statistical queries arriving online, and being answered immediately when they arrive with differential privacy. Known matrix…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-05-12 Aleksandar Nikolov , Haohua Tang , Jonathan Ullman

Most prior work on online matching problems has been with the flexibility of keeping some vertices unmatched. We study three related online matching problems with the constraint of matching every vertex, i.e., with no rejections. We adopt a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2021-12-15 Mohak Goyal

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

The classical Prophet Inequality arises from a fundamental problem in optimal-stopping theory. In this problem, a gambler sees a finite sequence of independent, non-negative random variables. If he stops the sequence at any time, he…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-01-10 Van-Anh Truong , Xinshang Wang

One of the most intriguing unsolved questions of matroid optimization is the characterization of the existence of $k$ disjoint common bases of two matroids. The significance of the problem is well-illustrated by the long list of conjectures…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-02-19 Kristóf Bérczi , Tamás Schwarcz

The closure $\textrm{cl}(R)$ of a consistent set $R$ of triples (rooted binary trees on three leaves) provides essential information about tree-like relations that are shown by any supertree that displays all triples in $R$. In this…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-10-19 Marc Hellmuth , Carsten R. Seemann

This paper introduces a heuristic framework for the Best Secretary Problem, where one item must be selected using rank information only. We develop five data-responsive rules extending classical fixed-cutoff methods: an expected-record…

Applications · Statistics 2025-11-14 Eugene Seong

In the "secretary problem", well-known in the theory of optimal stopping, an employer is about to interview a maximum of N secretaries about which she has no prior information. Chow et al. proved that with an optimal strategy the expected…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Kimmo Eriksson , Jonas Sjostrand , Pontus Strimling

Streaming submodular maximization is a natural model for the task of selecting a representative subset from a large-scale dataset. If datapoints have sensitive attributes such as gender or race, it becomes important to enforce fairness to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-25 Marwa El Halabi , Federico Fusco , Ashkan Norouzi-Fard , Jakab Tardos , Jakub Tarnawski

We study the success probability for a variant of the secretary problem, with noisy observations and multiple offline selection. Our formulation emulates, and is motivated by, problems involving noisy selection arising in the disciplines of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-11 Robert Chin , Jonathan E. Rowe , Iman Shames , Chris Manzie , Dragan Nešić

The classical comparison-based sorting problem asks us to find the underlying total order of a given set of elements, where we can only access the elements via comparisons. In this paper, we study a restricted version, where, as a hint, a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-07-21 Benjamin Aram Berendsohn

In classical secretary problems, a sequence of $n$ elements arrive in a uniformly random order, and we want to choose a single item, or a set of size $K$. The random order model allows us to escape from the strong lower bounds for the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-12-02 Domagoj Bradac , Anupam Gupta , Sahil Singla , Goran Zuzic

Prophet inequalities consist of many beautiful statements that establish tight performance ratios between online and offline allocation algorithms. Typically, tightness is established by constructing an algorithmic guarantee and a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-03-14 Jiashuo Jiang , Will Ma , Jiawei Zhang

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