K-order Ranking Preference Optimization for Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Cai, Shihao, Gao, Chongming, Zhang, Yang, Shi, Wentao, Zhang, Jizhi, Bao, Keqin, Wang, Qifan, Feng, Fuli
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866912405951348736
author Cai, Shihao
Gao, Chongming
Zhang, Yang
Shi, Wentao
Zhang, Jizhi
Bao, Keqin
Wang, Qifan
Feng, Fuli
author_facet Cai, Shihao
Gao, Chongming
Zhang, Yang
Shi, Wentao
Zhang, Jizhi
Bao, Keqin
Wang, Qifan
Feng, Fuli
contents To adapt large language models (LLMs) to ranking tasks, existing list-wise methods, represented by list-wise Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), focus on optimizing partial-order or full-order list ranking consistency for LLMs to enhance their ranking abilities. However, we argue that optimizing top-K ranking consistency could be more appropriate for real-world applications. There are two main reasons: (1) users are typically concerned with only the top-K results, making top-K ranking more important, and (2) tail items often lack precise feedback, making top-K ranking more reliable. Based on this, we propose K-order Ranking Preference Optimization (KPO) by extending the DPO's Plackett-Luce model to accommodate top-K rankings. Additionally, recognizing that the number of important items can vary across queries, we extend KPO to dynamically determine appropriate K for different samples and introduce a curriculum learning strategy to boost training efficiency. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of KPO, highlighting its high sample efficiency and robustness to noise. The code is available at https://github.com/Lanyu0303/KPO.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_00441
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle K-order Ranking Preference Optimization for Large Language Models
Cai, Shihao
Gao, Chongming
Zhang, Yang
Shi, Wentao
Zhang, Jizhi
Bao, Keqin
Wang, Qifan
Feng, Fuli
Information Retrieval
To adapt large language models (LLMs) to ranking tasks, existing list-wise methods, represented by list-wise Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), focus on optimizing partial-order or full-order list ranking consistency for LLMs to enhance their ranking abilities. However, we argue that optimizing top-K ranking consistency could be more appropriate for real-world applications. There are two main reasons: (1) users are typically concerned with only the top-K results, making top-K ranking more important, and (2) tail items often lack precise feedback, making top-K ranking more reliable. Based on this, we propose K-order Ranking Preference Optimization (KPO) by extending the DPO's Plackett-Luce model to accommodate top-K rankings. Additionally, recognizing that the number of important items can vary across queries, we extend KPO to dynamically determine appropriate K for different samples and introduce a curriculum learning strategy to boost training efficiency. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of KPO, highlighting its high sample efficiency and robustness to noise. The code is available at https://github.com/Lanyu0303/KPO.
title K-order Ranking Preference Optimization for Large Language Models
topic Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00441