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We study online learning in finite-horizon episodic Markov decision processes (MDPs) under the challenging aggregate bandit feedback model, where the learner observes only the cumulative loss incurred in each episode, rather than individual…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-28 Shinji Ito , Kevin Jamieson , Haipeng Luo , Arnab Maiti , Taira Tsuchiya

In this work, we study clustered contextual bandits where rewards and resource consumption are the outcomes of cluster-specific linear models. The arms are divided in clusters, with the cluster memberships being unknown to an algorithm.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-08-22 Yichuan Deng , Michalis Mamakos , Zhao Song

In constrained Markov decision processes (CMDPs) with adversarial rewards and constraints, a well-known impossibility result prevents any algorithm from attaining both sublinear regret and sublinear constraint violation, when competing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-09-27 Francesco Emanuele Stradi , Anna Lunghi , Matteo Castiglioni , Alberto Marchesi , Nicola Gatti

A standard assumption in Reinforcement Learning is that the agent observes every visited state-action pair in the associated Markov Decision Process (MDP), along with the per-step rewards. Strong theoretical results are known in this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Zhengjia Zhuo , Anupam Gupta , Viswanath Nagarajan

We investigate the use of bootstrapping in the bandit setting. We first show that the commonly used non-parametric bootstrapping (NPB) procedure can be provably inefficient and establish a near-linear lower bound on the regret incurred by…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-05-25 Sharan Vaswani , Branislav Kveton , Zheng Wen , Anup Rao , Mark Schmidt , Yasin Abbasi-Yadkori

Multi-armed bandits (MAB) model sequential decision making problems, in which a learner sequentially chooses arms with unknown reward distributions in order to maximize its cumulative reward. Most of the prior work on MAB assumes that the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-03-22 Onur Atan , Cem Tekin , Mihaela van der Schaar

We study online learning in constrained Markov decision processes (CMDPs) in which rewards and constraints may be either stochastic or adversarial. In such settings, Stradi et al.(2024) proposed the first best-of-both-worlds algorithm able…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-10 Francesco Emanuele Stradi , Anna Lunghi , Matteo Castiglioni , Alberto Marchesi , Nicola Gatti

Decision-making under uncertainty is a fundamental problem encountered frequently and can be formulated as a stochastic multi-armed bandit problem. In the problem, the learner interacts with an environment by choosing an action at each…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-05-24 Jonathan Gornet , Bruno Sinopoli

We study a stochastic budget-allocation problem over $K$ tasks. At each round $t$, the learner chooses an allocation $X_t \in \Delta_K$. Task $k$ succeeds with probability $F_k(X_{t,k})$, where $F_1,\dots,F_K$ are nondecreasing…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-05 François Bachoc , Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi , Tommaso Cesari , Roberto Colomboni

We consider the restless multi-armed bandit (RMAB) problem with unknown dynamics in which a player chooses M out of N arms to play at each time. The reward state of each arm transits according to an unknown Markovian rule when it is played…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2011-12-30 Haoyang Liu , Keqin Liu , Qing Zhao

We consider the multinomial logistic bandit problem in which a learner interacts with an environment by selecting actions to maximize expected rewards based on probabilistic feedback from multiple possible outcomes. In the binary setting,…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-25 Pierre Boudart , Pierre Gaillard , Alessandro Rudi

In the stochastic knapsack problem, we are given a knapsack of size B, and a set of jobs whose sizes and rewards are drawn from a known probability distribution. However, we know the actual size and reward only when the job completes. How…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2011-02-21 Anupam Gupta , Ravishankar Krishnaswamy , Marco Molinaro , R. Ravi

We consider the classical problem of sequential resource allocation where a decision maker must repeatedly divide a budget between several resources, each with diminishing returns. This can be recast as a specific stochastic optimization…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-01-17 Xavier Fontaine , Shie Mannor , Vianney Perchet

We consider un-discounted reinforcement learning (RL) in Markov decision processes (MDPs) under drifting non-stationarity, i.e., both the reward and state transition distributions are allowed to evolve over time, as long as their respective…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-26 Wang Chi Cheung , David Simchi-Levi , Ruihao Zhu

We develop a new approach to obtaining high probability regret bounds for online learning with bandit feedback against an adaptive adversary. While existing approaches all require carefully constructing optimistic and biased loss…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-02 Chung-Wei Lee , Haipeng Luo , Chen-Yu Wei , Mengxiao Zhang

We consider the problem of learning to play a repeated multi-agent game with an unknown reward function. Single player online learning algorithms attain strong regret bounds when provided with full information feedback, which unfortunately…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-10-29 Pier Giuseppe Sessa , Ilija Bogunovic , Maryam Kamgarpour , Andreas Krause

We consider a stochastic bandit problem with countably many arms that belong to a finite set of types, each characterized by a unique mean reward. In addition, there is a fixed distribution over types which sets the proportion of each type…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-05-25 Anand Kalvit , Assaf Zeevi

The Colonel Blotto game is a renowned resource allocation problem with a long-standing literature in game theory (almost 100 years). However, its scope of application is still restricted by the lack of studies on the incomplete-information…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-09-12 Dong Quan Vu , Patrick Loiseau , Alonso Silva

We introduce a novel online learning framework that unifies and generalizes pre-established models, such as delayed and corrupted feedback, to encompass adversarial environments where action feedback evolves over time. In this setting, the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-28 Yogev Bar-On , Yishay Mansour

In this paper we consider the problem of learning the optimal policy for uncontrolled restless bandit problems. In an uncontrolled restless bandit problem, there is a finite set of arms, each of which when pulled yields a positive reward.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-01-30 Cem Tekin , Mingyan Liu