mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Evolution of Heuristics: Towards Efficient Automatic Algorithm Design Using Large Language Model

arXiv 2401.02051 ↗First posted 4 Jan 2024cs.NE cs.AIcited by 258

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Cited by 38 in LLM agents and tool use, but placed by its own abstract, which didn’t fit.

Abstract (arXiv)

Heuristics are widely used for dealing with complex search and optimization problems. However, manual design of heuristics can be often very labour extensive and requires rich working experience and knowledge. This paper proposes Evolution of Heuristic (EoH), a novel evolutionary paradigm that leverages both Large Language Models (LLMs) and Evolutionary Computation (EC) methods for Automatic Heuristic Design (AHD). EoH represents the ideas of heuristics in natural language, termed thoughts. They are then translated into executable codes by LLMs. The evolution of both thoughts and codes in an evolutionary search framework makes it very effective and efficient for generating high-performance heuristics. Experiments on three widely studied combinatorial optimization benchmark problems demonstrate that EoH outperforms commonly used handcrafted heuristics and other recent AHD methods including FunSearch. Particularly, the heuristic produced by EoH with a low computational budget (in terms of the number of queries to LLMs) significantly outperforms widely-used human hand-crafted baseline algorithms for the online bin packing problem.

Key facts. Cited by 258 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 45 of its 92 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Jan 2024.

Builds on

45 of 92 references.

References · 45

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
  3. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,053
  4. 2022Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasonerscited by 4,323
  5. 2021Program Synthesis with Large Language Modelscited by 3,509
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33 more
  1. 2023A Comprehensive Overview of Large Language Modelscited by 639
  2. 2018Machine Learning for Combinatorial Optimization: a Methodological Tour d'Horizoncited by 612
  3. 2016Neural Combinatorial Optimization with Reinforcement Learningcited by 600
  4. 2023Eureka: Human-Level Reward Design via Coding Large Language Modelscited by 542
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  6. 2019AutoML: A Survey of the State-of-the-Artcited by 388
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  8. 2019An Efficient Graph Convolutional Network Technique for the Travelling Salesman Problemcited by 265
  9. 2023Large Language Models as Commonsense Knowledge for Large-Scale Task Planningcited by 231
  10. 2023Large Language Model Guided Tree-of-Thoughtcited by 218
  11. 2021Learning to Optimize: A Primer and A Benchmarkcited by 206
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  17. 2023EvoPrompting: Language Models for Code-Level Neural Architecture Searchcited by 129
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  21. 2023Algorithm of Thoughts: Enhancing Exploration of Ideas in Large Language Modelscited by 92
  22. 2021Matrix Encoding Networks for Neural Combinatorial Optimizationcited by 89
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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 28; 2025: 98; 2026: 132.

258 papers.

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  1. 2025AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discoverycited by 763
  2. 2024Automated Design of Agentic Systemscited by 360
  3. 2025Darwin Godel Machine: Open-Ended Evolution of Self-Improving Agentscited by 294
  4. 2024ReEvo: Large Language Models as Hyper-Heuristics with Reflective Evolutioncited by 266
  5. 2024Multi-Step Reasoning with Large Language Models, a Surveycited by 140
  6. 2024LLaMEA: A Large Language Model Evolutionary Algorithm for Automatically Generating Metaheuristicscited by 92
  7. 2024Evolutionary Computation in the Era of Large Language Model: Survey and Roadmapcited by 89
  8. 2025CUDA-L1: Improving CUDA Optimization via Contrastive Reinforcement Learningcited by 59
  9. 2024RouteFinder: Towards Foundation Models for Vehicle Routing Problemscited by 54
  10. 2024LLaMoCo: Instruction Tuning of Large Language Models for Optimization Code Generationcited by 45
  11. 2026Meta Context Engineering via Agentic Skill Evolutioncited by 42
  12. 2024Discovering Preference Optimization Algorithms with and for Large Language Modelscited by 38
38 more
  1. 2025CodeEvolve: an open source evolutionary coding agent for algorithmic discovery and optimizationcited by 37
  2. 2025Self-Improving Language Models for Evolutionary Program Synthesis: A Case Study on ARC-AGIcited by 34
  3. 2024LLM4AD: A Platform for Algorithm Design with Large Language Modelcited by 33
  4. 2024Towards Foundation Models for Mixed Integer Linear Programmingcited by 30
  5. 2025Inference-Time Computations for LLM Reasoning and Planning: A Benchmark and Insightscited by 30
  6. 2025ALE-Bench: A Benchmark for Long-Horizon Objective-Driven Algorithm Engineeringcited by 30
  7. 2024Learning to Handle Complex Constraints for Vehicle Routing Problemscited by 29
  8. 2025CO-Bench: Benchmarking Language Model Agents in Algorithm Search for Combinatorial Optimizationcited by 28
  9. 2025Large Language Models as End-to-end Combinatorial Optimization Solverscited by 27
  10. 2025StepORLM: A Self-Evolving Framework With Generative Process Supervision For Operations Research Language Modelscited by 26
  11. 2026Recursive Self-Improvement in AI: From Bounded Self-Refinement to Autonomous Research Loopscited by 25
  12. 2024Neural Combinatorial Optimization Algorithms for Solving Vehicle Routing Problems: A Comprehensive Survey with Perspectivescited by 23
  13. 2024Toward Automated Algorithm Design: A Survey and Practical Guide to Meta-Black-Box-Optimizationcited by 23
  14. 2024FunBO: Discovering Acquisition Functions for Bayesian Optimization with FunSearchcited by 22
  15. 2024Self-Guiding Exploration for Combinatorial Problemscited by 21
  16. 2025The FM Agentcited by 20
  17. 2025HeuriGym: An Agentic Benchmark for LLM-Crafted Heuristics in Combinatorial Optimizationcited by 19
  18. 2025HeurAgenix: Leveraging LLMs for Solving Complex Combinatorial Optimization Challengescited by 19
  19. 2024Evolve Cost-aware Acquisition Functions Using Large Language Modelscited by 17
  20. 2024AutoSAT: Automatically Optimize SAT Solvers via Large Language Modelscited by 14
  21. 2025CoCoEvo: Co-Evolution of Programs and Test Cases to Enhance Code Generationcited by 14
  22. 2025Glia: A Human-Inspired AI for Automated Systems Design and Optimizationcited by 14
  23. 2024Pretrained Optimization Model for Zero-Shot Black Box Optimizationcited by 13
  24. 2025Planning of Heuristics: Strategic Planning on Large Language Models with Monte Carlo Tree Search for Automating Heuristic Optimizationcited by 13
  25. 2025ARS: Automatic Routing Solver with Large Language Modelscited by 13
  26. 2025HiFo-Prompt: Prompting with Hindsight and Foresight for LLM-based Automatic Heuristic Designcited by 13
  27. 2025EvoEngineer: Mastering Automated CUDA Kernel Code Evolution with Large Language Modelscited by 13
  28. 2026Frontier-Eng: Benchmarking Self-Evolving Agents on Real-World Engineering Tasks with Generative Optimizationcited by 13
  29. 2026Inference-Time Budget Control for LLM Search Agentscited by 13
  30. 2024Deep Insights into Automated Optimization with Large Language Models and Evolutionary Algorithmscited by 12
  31. 2025Improving Generalization of Neural Combinatorial Optimization for Vehicle Routing Problems via Test-Time Projection Learningcited by 12
  32. 2025AlphaOPT: Formulating Optimization Programs with Self-Improving LLM Experience Librarycited by 12
  33. 2024It's Morphing Time: Unleashing the Potential of Multiple LLMs via Multi-objective Optimizationcited by 10
  34. 2025FrontierCO: Real-World and Large-Scale Evaluation of Machine Learning Solvers for Combinatorial Optimizationcited by 10
  35. 2025LLaMEA-BO: A Large Language Model Evolutionary Algorithm for Automatically Generating Bayesian Optimization Algorithmscited by 10
  36. 2026Harness-Aware Self-Evolving: Co-Evolving Model Weights, Harness, and Task Solutionscited by 10
  37. 2025EvoGit: Decentralized Code Evolution via Git-Based Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 9
  38. 2025A Systematic Survey on Large Language Models for Evolutionary Optimization: From Modeling to Solvingcited by 9

50 most cited of 258 All 258 (JSON)