A Reduction from Delayed to Immediate Feedback for Online Convex Optimization with Improved Guarantees

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ryabchenko, Alexander, Attias, Idan, Roy, Daniel M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Ryabchenko, Alexander
Attias, Idan
Roy, Daniel M.
author_facet Ryabchenko, Alexander
Attias, Idan
Roy, Daniel M.
contents We develop a reduction-based framework for online learning with delayed feedback that recovers and improves upon existing results for both first-order and bandit convex optimization. Our approach introduces a continuous-time model under which regret decomposes into a delay-independent learning term and a delay-induced drift term, yielding a delay-adaptive reduction that converts any algorithm for online linear optimization into one that handles round-dependent delays. For bandit convex optimization, we significantly improve existing regret bounds, with delay-dependent terms matching state-of-the-art first-order rates. For first-order feedback, we recover state-of-the-art regret bounds via a simpler, unified analysis. Quantitatively, for bandit convex optimization we obtain $O(\sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}} + T^{\frac{3}{4}}\sqrt{k})$ regret, improving the delay-dependent term from $O(\min\{\sqrt{T d_{\text{max}}},(Td_{\text{tot}})^{\frac{1}{3}}\})$ in previous work to $O(\sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}})$. Here, $k$, $T$, $d_{\text{max}}$, and $d_{\text{tot}}$ denote the dimension, time horizon, maximum delay, and total delay, respectively. Under strong convexity, we achieve $O(\min\{σ_{\text{max}} \ln T, \sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}}\} + (T^2\ln T)^{\frac{1}{3}} {k}^{\frac{2}{3}})$, improving the delay-dependent term from $O(d_{\text{max}} \ln T)$ in previous work to $O(\min\{σ_{\text{max}} \ln T, \sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}}\})$, where $σ_{\text{max}}$ denotes the maximum number of outstanding observations and may be considerably smaller than $d_{\text{max}}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_02634
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Reduction from Delayed to Immediate Feedback for Online Convex Optimization with Improved Guarantees
Ryabchenko, Alexander
Attias, Idan
Roy, Daniel M.
Machine Learning
68Q32 (Primary) 68W27, 90C25 (Secondary)
F.1.2; G.1.6; I.2.6
We develop a reduction-based framework for online learning with delayed feedback that recovers and improves upon existing results for both first-order and bandit convex optimization. Our approach introduces a continuous-time model under which regret decomposes into a delay-independent learning term and a delay-induced drift term, yielding a delay-adaptive reduction that converts any algorithm for online linear optimization into one that handles round-dependent delays. For bandit convex optimization, we significantly improve existing regret bounds, with delay-dependent terms matching state-of-the-art first-order rates. For first-order feedback, we recover state-of-the-art regret bounds via a simpler, unified analysis. Quantitatively, for bandit convex optimization we obtain $O(\sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}} + T^{\frac{3}{4}}\sqrt{k})$ regret, improving the delay-dependent term from $O(\min\{\sqrt{T d_{\text{max}}},(Td_{\text{tot}})^{\frac{1}{3}}\})$ in previous work to $O(\sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}})$. Here, $k$, $T$, $d_{\text{max}}$, and $d_{\text{tot}}$ denote the dimension, time horizon, maximum delay, and total delay, respectively. Under strong convexity, we achieve $O(\min\{σ_{\text{max}} \ln T, \sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}}\} + (T^2\ln T)^{\frac{1}{3}} {k}^{\frac{2}{3}})$, improving the delay-dependent term from $O(d_{\text{max}} \ln T)$ in previous work to $O(\min\{σ_{\text{max}} \ln T, \sqrt{d_{\text{tot}}}\})$, where $σ_{\text{max}}$ denotes the maximum number of outstanding observations and may be considerably smaller than $d_{\text{max}}$.
title A Reduction from Delayed to Immediate Feedback for Online Convex Optimization with Improved Guarantees
topic Machine Learning
68Q32 (Primary) 68W27, 90C25 (Secondary)
F.1.2; G.1.6; I.2.6
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02634