Runtime Analysis of the Compact Genetic Algorithm on the LeadingOnes Benchmark

The compact genetic algorithm (cGA) is one of the simplest estimation-of-distribution algorithms (EDAs). Next to the univariate marginal distribution algorithm (UMDA)—another simple EDA—, the cGA has been subject to extensive mathematical runtime analyses, often showcasing a similar or even superior performance to competing approaches. Surprisingly though, up to date and in contrast to the UMDA and many other heuristics, we lack a rigorous runtime analysis of the cGA on the Leading Ones benchmark—one of the most studied theory benchmarks in the domain of evolutionary computation. We fill this gap in the literature by conducting a formal runtime analysis of the cGA on Leading Ones. For the cGA’s single parameter—called the hypothetical population size—at least polylogarithmically larger than the problem size, we prove that the cGA samples the optimum of Leading Ones with high probability within a number of function evaluations quasi-linear in the problem size and linear in the hypothetical population size. For the best hypothetical population size, our result matches, up to polylogarithmic factors, the typical quadratic runtime that many randomized search heuristics exhibit on Leading Ones. Our analysis exhibits some noteworthy differences in the working principles of the two algorithms which were not visible in previous works.