You have joined the recommendations team for a music streaming service. The "Made for You" shelf is served by a mature production two-tower model. Its chronological data protocol and indexed serving path are sound, but its offline retrieval quality no longer clears the team's next launch gate.
Your job is to investigate the production model, improve its retrieval quality, and ship a better ranking artifact. Use the implementation and public validation data to form and test your own diagnosis.
The source used to reproduce the production model is included under /task/current_model/. You may copy it into /app/solution/, edit it, add tests, and improve its training objective, but keep the data protocol, two-tower serving contract, and evaluation boundary intact.
Production Context
The model must satisfy a strict request-time latency budget. Item vectors are precomputed offline. At request time, one user vector is computed from observed interaction history and compared with candidate item vectors by a batchable two-tower score. Do not introduce a cross-encoder, per-candidate sequence model, or user-ID lookup table.
The current trainer is a mature baseline with chronological internal validation. Focus your investigation on how its training objective selects and uses negative examples. Diagnose limitations in the current negative-sampling strategy and improve it under the fixed CPU budget. Validate changes with the public backtest. The final approach must still train and rank within the supplied CPU environment while preserving the serving and data boundaries above.
What You Have
All public inputs are under /task/data/. A stage cutoff is the timestamp at which observed history and candidate eligibility are frozen for a ranking. The public validation stage cutoff is 24786800, when train_* ends. A 30-minute gap precedes the seven-day val_* window. For the final submission, that validation window becomes observed history, and another 30-minute gap precedes the hidden seven-day outcome window.
The package includes:
/task/current_model/train_current_model.py: the production training and ranking script. It can reproduce the public validation ranking and produce a hidden-test submission after refitting.
/task/current_model/two_tower_model.py: model primitives used by the production script.
/task/evaluate_public.py: the public validation evaluator for development.
/task/data/validation_eligible_candidates.npz and /task/data/test_eligible_candidates.npz: platform-owned candidate sets for the validation and hidden-test cutoffs.
/task/data/validation_preference_state.parquet and /task/data/test_preference_state.parquet: active explicit preference state at the corresponding cutoffs.
/task/requirements.txt: the exact offline Python distribution inventory.
You can reproduce the production public backtest with:
is_organic=1 means the listener sought out the track; 0 means the action came through a recommendation surface. A listen is a conventional positive at 50% completion. The discovery-quality objective below uses the stronger 80% threshold.
The two public windows have different roles:
For model development and selection, train only from train_* and score the subsequent val_* outcomes.
After selecting an improvement, refit it on train_* + val_*. At hidden-test time the validation events are observed history, not recommendable outcomes.
Do not use val_* events as features when measuring a validation ranking. They may and should be used when refitting the final hidden-test ranker.
Additional files under /task/data/:
candidate_catalog.parquet: the 30,000 retrieval-catalog tracks, ordered by training positive-listen popularity.
target_users.parquet: users with at least 20 positive listens in the 90 days before the training cutoff, selected without future labels.
validation_preference_state.parquet: active explicit state at the training cutoff, for validation ranking.
test_preference_state.parquet: active explicit state after validation, for the final hidden-test ranking. State is liked or disliked; a pair may have both active channels.
validation_eligible_candidates.npz and test_eligible_candidates.npz: cutoff-correct candidate sets for every target user. Each contains aligned arrays uids, item_ids, and packed_eligible. For user row r, recover the Boolean item mask with np.unpackbits(packed_eligible[r], count=len(item_ids), bitorder="little").
Validation candidates exclude all train_* encounters. Test candidates exclude all train_* and val_* encounters. Future test interactions are hidden and used only by the separate Harbor verifier.
Discovery Objective
Rank only the candidates returned for the relevant cutoff. Relevance is based on organic behavior in the immediately following window:
grade 3: the user organically likes the track;
grade 1: the user organically listens to at least 80% of the track;
grade 0: otherwise.
If both positive events occur, grade 3 wins. Ranking quality is measured with graded NDCG@10. DCG uses gain 2^grade - 1 and discount 1/log2(rank + 1), then averages per-user NDCG over users with at least one relevant item.
The public evaluator reports this same objective for development, but its score is not a separate acceptance stage. Final acceptance is determined on the hidden test using the same objective. The Yambda logs contain interactions, not impression propensities; treat the organic objective as a robust offline target, not as a causal estimate of online lift.
Deliverable
Submit one final ranking as /app/solution/submission.parquet or /app/solution/submission.csv. It must be a regular file, not a symbolic link. If both files exist, the verifier evaluates submission.parquet and ignores submission.csv.
The ranking must:
include the columns uid, item_id, and rank; only these columns are evaluated;
use finite, integer-valued entries in all three required columns;
cover exactly the users in target_users.parquet, with no missing or extra users;
contain exactly 100 rows and 100 distinct items for every target user;
contain every integer rank from 1 through 100 exactly once per user; and
use only items present in that user's test_eligible_candidates.npz candidate set.
Also leave the improved implementation used to build the artifact at /app/solution/train_current_model.py, along with any local modules it imports. A concise /app/solution/README.md with the diagnosis, before-and-after public score, model change, and submission command is useful for the experiment record, but it is not an automated acceptance gate.
Constraints
Write deliverables and intermediate artifacts only under /app/solution/.
Treat /task/ and the installed Python environment as read-only.
Do not invoke nested agents or attempt to access verifier files, credentials, other trials, or host paths.
Do not install packages or use network access except for the model-provider connection managed by Harbor.
Do not alter cutoff definitions, target users, candidate eligibility, or relevance labels.
Improve the production pipeline in place. Do not substitute an unrelated model family or evade the indexed two-tower serving constraint.
The environment includes CPU PyTorch 2.8.0. No accelerator is available.
You have up to 60 minutes. Prioritize measured validation improvements, a correct final refit, and a valid submission over broad architecture search.
Keep the best valid submission saved throughout the attempt so it survives the deadline.
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1 #!/usr/bin/env python3
2 """Score a validation-stage ranking against public discovery labels.
3
4 ``build_task.py`` publishes this module with the solver-visible task files. It
5 loads target users, validation eligibility, and validation-window events from
6 the adjacent ``data`` directory, then evaluates one ranking supplied on the
7 command line. Stage-independent mechanics come from the adjacent public
8 ``ranking_evaluation.py`` module. The builder installs the same checked-in
9 module in the private judge, so public and private scoring mechanics cannot
10 drift. A relevant candidate receives grade 3 for an organic like or grade 1 for
11 an organic listen with at least 80 percent completion; a like takes precedence
12 when both events exist.
13
14 Before scoring, the ranking must contain exactly 100 distinct eligible items
15 for every target user, with integer-valued ``uid``, ``item_id``, and ``rank``
16 columns and ranks 1 through 100 exactly once per user. Extra columns are
17 ignored. Quality is graded NDCG@10, averaged only over users who have at least
18 one eligible relevant item in the validation window.
19
20 The evaluator prints a JSON object containing the model path and scores. It
21 does not apply the task's pass threshold; its purpose is model development and
22 selection. The private judge applies the threshold to the final submission.
23
24 Usage::
25
26 python evaluate_public.py <validation-ranking.parquet|csv>
27 """
28 from __future__ import annotations
29
30 import json
31 import sys
32 from pathlib import Path
33
34 import pandas as pd
35
36 from ranking_evaluation import (
37 CandidateSet,
38 RankingValidationError,
39 ranked_items,
40 read_ranking,
41 score_rankings,
42 validate_ranking,
43 )
44
45
46 HERE = Path(__file__).resolve().parent
47 DATA = HERE / "data"
48 LISTEN_STRONG = 80
49
50
51 def validation_truth(
52 eligibility: CandidateSet, targets: set[int]
53 ) -> dict[int, dict[int, int]]:
54 """Build cutoff-correct graded relevance from public validation events.
55
56 Only target-user events for eligible candidates are retained. Organic
57 listens completed to at least 80 percent receive grade 1, and organic likes
58 receive grade 3. Repeated user-item events are collapsed, and processing
59 likes second ensures that grade 3 wins over grade 1.
60
61 Args:
62 eligibility: Validation-cutoff candidate membership service.
63 targets: Complete set of target user IDs.
64
65 Returns:
66 A nested ``uid -> item_id -> grade`` mapping. Users without an eligible
67 relevant event are omitted.
68 """
69 listens = pd.read_parquet(DATA / "val_listens.parquet")
70 likes = pd.read_parquet(DATA / "val_likes.parquet")
71 strong = listens[
72 listens.uid.isin(targets)
73 & (listens.is_organic == 1)
74 & (listens.played_ratio_pct >= LISTEN_STRONG)
75 ][["uid", "item_id"]].drop_duplicates()
76 organic_likes = likes[
77 likes.uid.isin(targets) & (likes.is_organic == 1)
78 ][["uid", "item_id"]].drop_duplicates()
79
80 graded: dict[int, dict[int, int]] = {}
81 for raw_uid, raw_item in strong.itertuples(index=False, name=None):
82 uid, item = int(raw_uid), int(raw_item)
83 if eligibility.is_eligible(uid, item):
84 graded.setdefault(uid, {})[item] = 1
85 for raw_uid, raw_item in organic_likes.itertuples(index=False, name=None):
86 uid, item = int(raw_uid), int(raw_item)
87 if eligibility.is_eligible(uid, item):
88 graded.setdefault(uid, {})[item] = 3
89 return graded
90
91
92 def load_submission(
93 path: Path, eligibility: CandidateSet, targets: set[int]
94 ) -> dict[int, list[int]]:
95 """Load and validate a public validation ranking.
96
97 Files ending in ``.parquet`` are read as parquet; every other suffix is
98 read as CSV. The required columns must be integer-valued, cover exactly the
99 target-user set, contain 100 rows and ranks 1 through 100 per user, avoid
100 duplicate user-item pairs, and contain only cutoff-eligible items.
101
102 Args:
103 path: Ranking file to read.
104 eligibility: Validation-cutoff candidate membership service.
105 targets: Exact set of users the ranking must cover.
106
107 Returns:
108 A ``uid -> ranked item IDs`` mapping ordered by ascending rank.
109
110 Raises:
111 ValueError: If the ranking violates the required schema or invariants.
112 """
113 frame = validate_ranking(read_ranking(path), targets)
114 if not all(
115 eligibility.is_eligible(uid, item)
116 for uid, item in frame[["uid", "item_id"]].itertuples(index=False, name=None)
117 ):
118 raise RankingValidationError(
119 "submission contains an item rejected by eligibility service"
120 )
121 return ranked_items(frame)
122
123
124 def score(
125 ranked: dict[int, list[int]],
126 graded: dict[int, dict[int, int]],
127 ) -> dict[str, float | int]:
128 """Aggregate per-user NDCG@10 over users with public relevance labels.
129
130 Args:
131 ranked: Ranked item IDs for every target user.
132 graded: Eligible validation relevance keyed by user and item.
133
134 Returns:
135 The six-decimal ``quality_ndcg@10`` value and number of scored users.
136 """
137 return score_rankings(ranked, graded)
138
139
140 def main() -> None:
141 """Run the public evaluator CLI and print its JSON score report."""
142 targets_frame = pd.read_parquet(DATA / "target_users.parquet")
143 targets = set(targets_frame.uid.astype(int))
144 eligibility = CandidateSet(DATA / "validation_eligible_candidates.npz")
145 graded = validation_truth(eligibility, targets)
146
147 if len(sys.argv) != 2:
148 raise SystemExit(
149 "usage: evaluate_public.py <validation-ranking.parquet|csv>"
150 )
151 path = Path(sys.argv[1])
152 ranked = load_submission(path, eligibility, targets)
153 print(json.dumps({"model": str(path), "scores": score(ranked, graded)}, indent=2))
154
155
156 if __name__ == "__main__":
157 main()
158
Command did not complete within its 120s timeout and was moved to the background (ID: bkoonha5v). Output is being written to: /tmp/claude-1000/-app/436e8259-41fe-474b-bfa9-abd21fabfc32/tasks/bkoonha5v.output. You will be notified when it completes. To check interim output, use Read on that file path.
The archive records a thinking event with empty text. No readable thinking is available for this event.
Model text
Variant B (α=1.0) scored 0.0151 — below baseline. Variant A was OOM-killed. Launching a corrected run at full threads while I check a popularity reference.
Tool callBashLaunch sampled-softmax with higher LRReturned
The archive records a thinking event with empty text. No readable thinking is available for this event.
Tool callWrite/app/solution/README.mdReturned
Tool call · Input
/app/solution/README.md
# Made-for-You two-tower: negative-sampling investigation
## Diagnosis
The production objective is a sample-weighted pointwise BCE with 32 negatives
per target: 24 drawn uniformly from the 30,000-track catalog and 8 in-batch
negatives whose contribution is rescaled by a clipped power-law propensity
correction (`(1/(N q))**0.5`, clipped to `[0.25, 4]`).
Two limitations follow:
1. **The negatives are almost all trivial.** A uniform draw from a catalog
ordered by popularity is a long-tail track that the raw dot product already
scores far below the target, so 24 of 32 negatives contribute nearly no
gradient. The top of the ranked list is contested by *popular* candidates,
which the loss almost never sees.
2. **The only popular negatives are the ones the trainer discounts.** The
in-batch block is the sole source of head-of-catalog negatives, and the
propensity correction shrinks exactly those terms toward the 0.25 floor.
The in-batch proposal is also batch-dependent, so its density is never
actually known — the correction is a heuristic stand-in for it.
Reference points on the public backtest (all with the supplied stage cutoff
`24786800`):
| ranking | public NDCG@10 |
| --- | --- |
| catalog popularity order only | 0.010710 |
| **production model (baseline)** | **0.021280** |
So the production model carries roughly 2x the popularity prior's quality; the
remaining headroom is within-head discrimination, which is the region its
negatives do not cover.
## Change implemented
`train_current_model.py` gains a second, selectable training objective
(`--objective sampled-softmax`) that replaces both flawed pieces at once and
keeps the per-target negative budget at 32:
* `build_negative_sampler` / `draw_mixture_negatives` — negatives are drawn
from an **explicit mixture proposal**: `--uniform-negatives` uniform draws for
coverage plus `--popularity-negatives` draws from
`p_empirical ** --popularity-sampling-power` over the selected training
targets. The popular region is now sampled on purpose and the proposal
density is known exactly per item.
* `sampled_softmax_loss` — a **log-Q-corrected sampled softmax** over the
positive and its negatives (`s_neg - log q(i) - log K`). This removes the
proposal bias exactly instead of with clipped reweighting, and it optimizes
the ordering the indexed top-K retrieval actually uses rather than
calibrating each pair independently.
* False-negative rejection (full training-history positives, the current
target, active likes) is preserved; cross-column de-duplication is dropped
because the log-Q estimator assumes sampling with replacement.
The data protocol, chronological target partition, two-tower serving contract
(no cross-encoder, no user-ID table, precomputable item vectors, raw dot
product), and the evaluation boundary are unchanged.
## Measured result — the change is *not* shipped
Under the one-epoch CPU budget the new objective did **not** beat production on
the public backtest:
| configuration | public NDCG@10 |
| --- | --- |
| production BCE, 24 uniform + 8 corrected in-batch (`weighted-bce`) | **0.021280** |
| sampled softmax, 8 uniform + 24 popularity (power 1.0), lr 1e-3 | 0.015132 |
| sampled softmax, 8 uniform + 24 popularity (power 0.75), lr 3e-3 | not finished in budget |
The softmax variant lands between the popularity-only reference (0.0107) and
production (0.0213), and its pairwise accuracy drops from 0.755 to 0.622 — the
signature of an under-trained model that has learned mostly the popularity
prior. The loss scale changes from ~0.54 to ~9.4 while the gradient clip stays
at 2.0, so one epoch at the production learning rate is very likely not enough
to converge. The higher-learning-rate run that would test this was still
training when the time budget ran out and was stopped so the submission refit
could complete.
Because the only completed measurement was a regression, the shipped artifact
uses the production objective, refit on `train_* + val_*`. The `Config`
defaults were restored to the production values so the script reproduces the
submitted artifact with no flags. The sampled-softmax path remains available
behind `--objective sampled-softmax` and is the recommended next experiment
(higher learning rate and/or a second epoch, then a sweep over
`--popularity-sampling-power`).
## Commands
Public backtest (production objective):
```sh
python train_current_model.py --stage validation --public-dir /task \
--prepared-cache /app/solution/cache_validation.npz \
--output /app/solution/production_validation.parquet
python /task/evaluate_public.py /app/solution/production_validation.parquet
```
Submitted artifact (`submission.parquet`, refit on `train_* + val_*`):
```sh
python train_current_model.py --stage submission --public-dir /task \
--prepared-cache /app/solution/cache_submission.npz \
--output /app/solution/submission.parquet
python check_submission.py /app/solution/submission.parquet
```
Candidate experiment (not shipped):
```sh
python train_current_model.py --stage validation --public-dir /task \
--prepared-cache /app/solution/cache_validation.npz \
--objective sampled-softmax --uniform-negatives 8 \
--popularity-negatives 24 --popularity-sampling-power 0.75 \
--learning-rate 3e-3 --output /app/solution/val_c.parquet
```
## Files
* `train_current_model.py` — trainer/ranker used for the artifact.
* `two_tower_model.py` — unchanged model primitives.
* `check_submission.py` — deliverable-invariant checker for the ranking.
* `submission.parquet` — final hidden-test ranking (copy of
`submission_baseline.parquet`).
Tool response
File created successfully at: /app/solution/README.md (file state is current in your context — no need to Read it back)
The production objective spends 24 of its 32 negatives on uniform draws from a 30k catalog ordered by popularity — long-tail tracks the raw dot product already ranks far below the target. The only head-of-catalog negatives are the 8 in-batch ones, and the clipped power-law propensity correction shrinks exactly those toward its 0.25 floor. So the loss almost never trains on the region that actually contests the top-10, and the in-batch proposal density is never truly known.
Reference points I measured:
ranking
public NDCG@10
pure popularity order
0.010710
production baseline
0.021280
What I built
A selectable --objective sampled-softmax path: negatives drawn from an explicit mixture (uniform for coverage + p_empirical**α for the popular head), with exact log-Q correction inside a sampled softmax, replacing both the easy-negative proposal and the heuristic reweighting. Same 32-negative budget, same data protocol, serving contract, and evaluation boundary.
What I could not show
The one improved configuration that finished regressed: sampled softmax at α=1.0 scored 0.015132, between popularity-only and production, with pairwise accuracy dropping 0.755 → 0.622 — the signature of under-training (loss scale moves 0.54 → 9.4 while the gradient clip stays at 2.0, at one epoch). The follow-up run at lr 3e-3 that would test that hypothesis was still training when the clock forced me to free CPU for the submission refit, so I killed it. A second variant was OOM-killed earlier when two runs shared the box.
So the shipped artifact uses the production objective, refit on train_* + val_*, and I restored the Config defaults to production values so the script reproduces the artifact with no flags. Shipping the unvalidated softmax path on a single regressing measurement would have been a guess. The improved path stays behind the flag as the documented next experiment.
About this recording
The full recorded conversation: task prompt, agent messages, thinking text when available, tool inputs and outputs, and harness context. Empty thinking entries are labeled unavailable, not reconstructed from tool calls. Disclosures change the view; they do not shorten the content. Any truncation already present in tool output is preserved.
Steps follow the recorded model messages and reasoning events. Tool results appear with their originating call. Elapsed time starts with the first recorded event and excludes verification.
Session bookkeeping and encrypted reasoning or signatures are excluded from the reading export. The harness’s system prompt is not present in this session archive.