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arXiv · 2610.09050

Efficient Algorithms for Online Subadditive Combinatorial Allocations

Calum MacRury·Rian Neogi·Kanstantsin Pashkovich·Sahil Singla·Siddharth M Sundaram·Chaitanya Swamy
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Abstract

For the online combinatorial allocation problem with subadditive valuations, Correa and Cristi (STOC 2023) proved the existence of a $6$-competitive online algorithm, improving on the previous best $O(\log\!\log m)$-competitive online algorithm due to Dütting, Kesselheim, and Lucier (FOCS 2020), where $m$ is the number of items. However, Correa and Cristi's result is existential, and it was left open whether a constant competitive ratio is attainable via an efficient online algorithm that uses a polynomial number of demand oracle queries. In this work, we answer this affirmatively, giving an expected-polynomial-time $(6 + ε)$-competitive online algorithm for any constant $ε> 0$. Our techniques also recover, in the offline setting, the $(2 + ε)$-approximation result of Feige (STOC, 2006). Finally, when the buyers' valuations are drawn from identical distributions, we exploit symmetry to obtain an improved $(60/11+ε)$-competitive algorithm. Starting with the natural configuration LP relaxation for the problem, our main technical contribution is a recursive Bundle Score Generator (BSG) that resolves item conflicts by assigning correlated scores to the items requested by each buyer. Unlike the Random Score Generator whose existence is shown by Correa and Cristi, our BSG is efficiently computable in expected polynomial time. Moreover, it satisfies a stochastic dominance property that is sufficient to recover both Feige's offline result and Correa and Cristi's online result.

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Calum MacRury, Rian Neogi, Kanstantsin Pashkovich, Sahil Singla, Siddharth M Sundaram, Chaitanya Swamy. 2026-10-09. Efficient Algorithms for Online Subadditive Combinatorial Allocations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09050

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