A Primal-Dual Continuous LP Method on the Multi-choice Multi-best Secretary Problem

Abstract: 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 maximized is the expected number of items chosen among the K best items. Previous works analyzed the case when the total number n of items is finite, and considered what happens when n grows. However, for general J and K, the optimal solution for finite n is difficult to analyze. Instead, we prove a formal connection between the finite model and the infinite model, where there are countably infinite number of items, each attached with a random arrival time drawn independently and uniformly from [0,1]. We use primal-dual continuous linear programming techniques to analyze a class of infinite algorithms, which are general enough to capture the asymptotic behavior of the finite model with large number of items. Our techniques allow us to prove that the optimal solution can be achieved by the (J,K)-Threshold Algorithm, which has a nice "rational description" for the case K = 1.