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 batch complexity



Batched Thompson Sampling

Neural Information Processing Systems

O (log log(T)) expected batch complexity. This is achieved through a dynamic batching strategy, which uses the agents estimates to adaptively increase the batch duration.




Batched Thompson Sampling

Neural Information Processing Systems

We introduce a novel anytime batched Thompson sampling policy for multi-armed bandits where the agent observes the rewards of her actions and adjusts her policy only at the end of a small number of batches. We show that this policy simultaneously achieves a problem dependent regret of order $O(\log(T))$ and a minimax regret of order $O(\sqrt{T\log(T)})$ while the number of batches can be bounded by $O(\log(T))$ independent of the problem instance over a time horizon $T$. We also prove that in expectation the instance dependent batch complexity of our policy is of order $O(\log\log(T))$. These results indicate that Thompson sampling performs competitively with recently proposed algorithms for the batched setting, which optimize the batch structure for a given time horizon $T$ and prioritize exploration in the beginning of the experiment to eliminate suboptimal actions. Unlike these algorithms, the batched Thompson sampling algorithm we propose is an anytime policy, i.e. it operates without the knowledge of the time horizon $T$, and as such it is the only anytime algorithm that achieves optimal regret with $O(\log\log(T))$ expected batch complexity. This is achieved through a dynamic batching strategy, which uses the agents estimates to adaptively increase the batch duration.






Optimal and Practical Batched Linear Bandit Algorithm

Yu, Sanghoon, Oh, Min-hwan

arXiv.org Machine Learning

We study the linear bandit problem under limited adaptivity, known as the batched linear bandit. While existing approaches can achieve near-optimal regret in theory, they are often computationally prohibitive or underperform in practice. We propose \texttt{BLAE}, a novel batched algorithm that integrates arm elimination with regularized G-optimal design, achieving the minimax optimal regret (up to logarithmic factors in $T$) in both large-$K$ and small-$K$ regimes for the first time, while using only $O(\log\log T)$ batches. Our analysis introduces new techniques for batch-wise optimal design and refined concentration bounds. Crucially, \texttt{BLAE} demonstrates low computational overhead and strong empirical performance, outperforming state-of-the-art methods in extensive numerical evaluations. Thus, \texttt{BLAE} is the first algorithm to combine provable minimax-optimality in all regimes and practical superiority in batched linear bandits.