Research map / Learning theory and algorithms / Combinatorial and search optimization
Structure and complexity of constraint reasoning
Analyzes algorithms and hardness for answer set programming, symmetry breaking and graph counting.
92 accepted papers at ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR and AAAI (2016–2026) · an approach in Combinatorial and search optimization, keyword cluster “logic · sat · boolean”
State History Tried Preprints Who Export
Where it stands
Not enough benchmark data Fewer than four papers report the same benchmark, so there is no record to follow.
22 papers in 2023–24 and 18 in 2025–26 (at ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR and AAAI); its share of the topic shrank, from 6.3% to 5.0%.
How this is decided
A benchmark is tracked when at least four papers of this approach report their own method on the same dataset and metric in at least two different years. Its record is the best number reported up to 2024 compared with the best reported in 2025–26: still improving means at least 1% better, flat means at most 0.2% better with at least two papers from 2025–26 trying. Numbers on a different scale from the rest (a fraction among percentages) and far outliers are left out. Results come from different papers with different setups, so they are signals, not head-to-head comparisons. The share of papers is counted at ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR and AAAI.
How it got here
Most cited paper of each year
- 2016 · Numerical Relation Extraction with Minimal Supervision (AAAI 2016 · 49 citations)
- 2017 · Efficient Solvers for Minimal Problems by Syzygy-Based Reduction (CVPR 2017 · 142 citations)
- 2018 · Proximal Graphical Event Models (NeurIPS 2018 · 25 citations)
- 2019 · On Testing of Uniform Samplers (AAAI 2019 · 21 citations)
- 2020 · Mitigating Manipulation in Peer Review via Randomized Reviewer Assignments (NeurIPS 2020 · 33 citations)
- 2021 · SAT-based Decision Tree Learning for Large Data Sets (AAAI 2021 · 28 citations)
- 2022 · Using MaxSAT for Efficient Explanations of Tree Ensembles (AAAI 2022 · 41 citations)
- 2023 · FASTDIAGP: An Algorithm for Parallelized Direct Diagnosis (AAAI 2023 · 13 citations)
- 2024 · Learning to Learn in Interactive Constraint Acquisition (AAAI 2024 · 5 citations)
- 2025 · Algorithm Selection for Word-Level Hardware Model Checking (Student Abstract) (AAAI 2025 · 2 citations)
- 2026 · OC-space: a Unifying Perspective on Verification of Tree Ensembles (ICML 2026 · 0 citations)
Earliest papers here
- Numerical Relation Extraction with Minimal Supervision (AAAI 2016 · 49 citations)
- Dynamic Controllability of Disjunctive Temporal Networks: Validation and Synthesis of Executable Strategies (AAAI 2016 · 18 citations)
- Scalable Training of Markov Logic Networks Using Approximate Counting (AAAI 2016 · 16 citations)
What has been tried
73 papers here report 488 measured changes (a component added, removed or swapped, compared with a baseline): helped 69%, no clear effect 7%, hurt 19%, mixed 6%. Papers mostly publish changes that helped, so "helped" is over-represented.
Ablations in recent papers
| What was changed | Measured on | Result | Effect | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guide FindScope and FindC in addition to top-level query generation | Exam TT · number of queries | up to 22% | Helped | Learning to Learn in Interactive Constraint Acquisition (AAAI 2024 · 5 citations) |
| Apply positional encoding to features for attention and prediction | WebTraffic test · AOPCR | 13.041 -> 12.372 | Hurt | Are Multiple Instance Learning Algorithms Learnable for Instances? (NeurIPS 2024 · 3 citations) |
| Use Bit-Width Aggregation instead of Bag of Keywords | BTOR2 testing set (288 instances) · #Solved | 227 -> 226 | Hurt | Algorithm Selection for Word-Level Hardware Model Checking (Student Abstract) (AAAI 2025 · 2 citations) |
| Recompute symmetries in each iteration | Most benchmark instances · runtime | Hurt | Exploiting Symmetries in MUS Computation (AAAI 2025 · 1 citation) | |
| Add all heuristic improvements (data reduction, branching improvements, lower bounds, subset constraints, subset caching) to naive witness-tree implementation | Penn Machine Learning Benchmarks · running time speedup over naive implementation | mean 324-fold, median 84-fold | Helped | Witty: An Efficient Solver for Computing Minimum-Size Decision Trees (AAAI 2025 · 1 citation) |
| Use all learned patterns rather than only the highest-scoring pattern | RCPSP-WET · solve-time ratio (S) | 0.8 -> 0.8; 1.0 -> 0.9; 1.0 -> 1.0; 0.9 -> 0.9 | No clear effect | Automatic Core-Guided Reformulation via Constraint Explanation and Condition Learning (AAAI 2024 · 1 citation) |
Recent preprints
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Who publishes on it
Institutions on the most papers of this approach since 2023 (of 40 papers; from OpenAlex and the papers' affiliations).
- National University of Singapore · 4 papers
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2 papers
- Graz University of Technology · 2 papers
- University of Klagenfurt · 2 papers
- University of Oxford · 2 papers
- TU Wien · 2 papers
- KU Leuven · 2 papers
- Saarland University · 2 papers
Use it
Download BibTeX of 40 key papersOpen the topic in the interactive map
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Related approaches
Same keyword cluster
- Logic and answer set programming theory (150 papers)
- SAT and model counting solvers (89 papers)
- Differentiable and symbolic reasoning (56 papers)
Elsewhere in the topic
- Heuristic and local search algorithms (147 papers)
- Classical and HTN planning (145 papers)
- Unsupervised neural combinatorial optimization (113 papers)
- Constrained neural network optimization (111 papers)
- Decision-focused optimization (97 papers)
- Multi-objective optimization (93 papers)
- Predict-then-optimize learning (89 papers)
- Heuristics for integer programming (60 papers)
Benchmark numbers, ablations and baseline numbers are extracted by AI from each paper's full text and can be wrong; the paper is the authority. Data: results index of 2026-11-02, citation counts from OpenAlex (2026-10-09).