Explore or Exploit?

Learning while you choose

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Every choice can earn rewards or gather information: explore versus exploit.
• Test-then-commit needs a balanced test length; the optimum is flat.
• Adaptive strategies like UCB use optimism about uncertain options.

Steps

1. Two slot machines
2. Pure greed
3. How long to test?
4. Regret
5. Optimism
6. A bigger budget