cs.LGOct 23, 2026

Optimal Multiclass Online Regret with Arbitrary Label Spaces

Authors: Sajad Ashkezari, Shai Ben-David

Organizations: University of Waterloo

Abstract

We determine the optimal regret in agnostic multiclass online learning with arbitrary, possibly infinite, label spaces. For every hypothesis class of multiclass Littlestone dimension d<∞d<\infty, we prove a regret upper bound of O(min⁡{T,dT})O(\min\{T,\sqrt{dT}\}) over TT rounds, matching the known lower bound. This resolves a question of Hanneke et al. (2023) and extends the optimal binary regret bound of Alon et al. (2021). Our proof strengthens the one-sided expert cover of Hanneke et al. (2023) to a fractional cover. We combine this cover with a minimax reduction to a finite expert game, whose best-response rewards provide the disagreement bounds needed for chaining.

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