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BFS-PO: Best-First Search for Large Reasoning Models

Fiorenzo Parascandolo, Wenhui Tan, Enver Sangineto, Ruihua Song, Rita Cucchiara · Feb 16, 2026 · Citations: 0

Automatic Metrics
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How to use this page

Low trust

Use this as background context only. Do not make protocol decisions from this page alone.

Best use

Background context only

What to verify

Validate the evaluation procedure and quality controls in the full paper before operational use.

Evidence quality

Low

Derived from extracted protocol signals and abstract evidence.

Abstract

Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) such as OpenAI o1 and DeepSeek-R1 have shown excellent performance in reasoning tasks using long reasoning chains. However, this has also led to a significant increase of computational costs and the generation of verbose output, a phenomenon known as overthinking. The tendency to overthinking is often exacerbated by Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms such as GRPO/DAPO. In this paper, we propose BFS-PO, an RL algorithm which alleviates this problem using a Best-First Search exploration strategy. Specifically, BFS-PO looks for the shortest correct answer using a backtracking mechanism based on maximum entropy nodes. By generating progressively shorter responses during training, BFS-PO learns to produce concise reasoning chains. Using different benchmarks and base LRMs, we show that BFS-PO can simultaneously increase the LRM accuracy and shorten its answers.

Low-signal caution for protocol decisions

Use this page for context, then validate protocol choices against stronger HFEPX references before implementation decisions.

  • This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.
  • The available metadata is too thin to trust this as a primary source.
Human Eval Hub LLM-as-Judge Hub Pairwise Preference Hub

Should You Rely On This Paper?

This paper is adjacent to HFEPX scope and is best used for background context, not as a primary protocol reference.

Best use

Background context only

Use if you need

A secondary eval reference to pair with stronger protocol papers.

Main weakness

This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.

Trust level

Low

Usefulness score

0/100 • Low

Treat as adjacent context, not a core eval-method reference.

Human Feedback Signal

Not explicit in abstract metadata

Evaluation Signal

Detected

Usefulness for eval research

Adjacent candidate

Extraction confidence: Low

If you are doing eval pipeline work, start here:

Human Eval Hub LLM-as-Judge Hub Pairwise Preference Hub Tool-Use Eval Hub

What We Could Verify

These are the protocol signals we could actually recover from the available paper metadata. Use them to decide whether this paper is worth deeper reading.

Human Feedback Types

missing

None explicit

No explicit feedback protocol extracted.

Evaluation Modes

partial

Automatic Metrics

Includes extracted eval setup.

Quality Controls

missing

Not reported

No explicit QC controls found.

Benchmarks / Datasets

missing

Not extracted

No benchmark anchors detected.

Reported Metrics

partial

Accuracy

Useful for evaluation criteria comparison.

Rater Population

missing

Unknown

Rater source not explicitly reported.

Human Feedback Details

  • Uses human feedback: No
  • Feedback types: None
  • Rater population: Unknown
  • Unit of annotation: Unknown
  • Expertise required: General

Evaluation Details

  • Evaluation modes: Automatic Metrics
  • Agentic eval: None
  • Quality controls: Not reported
  • Evidence quality: Low
  • Use this page as: Background context only

Protocol And Measurement Signals

Benchmarks / Datasets

No benchmark or dataset names were extracted from the available abstract.

Reported Metrics

accuracy

Research Brief

Deterministic synthesis

In this paper, we propose BFS-PO, an RL algorithm which alleviates this problem using a Best-First Search exploration strategy. HFEPX signals include Automatic Metrics with confidence 0.35. Updated from current HFEPX corpus.

Generated Apr 13, 2026, 8:31 AM · Grounded in abstract + metadata only

Key Takeaways

  • In this paper, we propose BFS-PO, an RL algorithm which alleviates this problem using a Best-First Search exploration strategy.
  • Using different benchmarks and base LRMs, we show that BFS-PO can simultaneously increase the LRM accuracy and shorten its answers.

Researcher Actions

  • Treat this as method context, then pivot to protocol-specific HFEPX hubs.
  • Identify benchmark choices from full text before operationalizing conclusions.
  • Validate metric comparability (accuracy).

Caveats

  • Generated from title, abstract, and extracted metadata only; full-paper implementation details are not parsed.
  • Low-signal flag detected: protocol relevance may be indirect.

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

  • In this paper, we propose BFS-PO, an RL algorithm which alleviates this problem using a Best-First Search exploration strategy.
  • Using different benchmarks and base LRMs, we show that BFS-PO can simultaneously increase the LRM accuracy and shorten its answers.

Why It Matters For Eval

  • Using different benchmarks and base LRMs, we show that BFS-PO can simultaneously increase the LRM accuracy and shorten its answers.

Researcher Checklist

  • Gap: Human feedback protocol is explicit

    No explicit human feedback protocol detected.

  • Pass: Evaluation mode is explicit

    Detected: Automatic Metrics

  • Gap: Quality control reporting appears

    No calibration/adjudication/IAA control explicitly detected.

  • Gap: Benchmark or dataset anchors are present

    No benchmark/dataset anchor extracted from abstract.

  • Pass: Metric reporting is present

    Detected: accuracy

Category-Adjacent Papers (Broader Context)

These papers are nearby in arXiv category and useful for broader context, but not necessarily protocol-matched to this paper.

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