mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

K2-Think: A Parameter-Efficient Reasoning System

arXiv 2509.07604 ↗First posted 9 Sep 2025cs.LGcited by 11

On the map: LLM reasoning → Test-time compute and efficient thinking

Abstract (arXiv)

K2-Think is a reasoning system that achieves state-of-the-art performance with a 32B parameter model, matching or surpassing much larger models like GPT-OSS 120B and DeepSeek v3.1. Built on the Qwen2.5 base model, our system shows that smaller models can compete at the highest levels by combining advanced post-training and test-time computation techniques. The approach is based on six key technical pillars: Long Chain-of-thought Supervised Finetuning, Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR), Agentic planning prior to reasoning, Test-time Scaling, Speculative Decoding, and Inference-optimized Hardware, all using publicly available open-source datasets. K2-Think excels in mathematical reasoning, achieving state-of-the-art scores on public benchmarks for open-source models, while also performing strongly in other areas such as Code and Science. Our results confirm that a more parameter-efficient model like K2-Think 32B can compete with state-of-the-art systems through an integrated post-training recipe that includes long chain-of-thought training and strategic inference-time enhancements, making open-source reasoning systems more accessible and affordable. K2-Think is freely available at k2think.ai, offering best-in-class inference speeds of over 2,000 tokens per second per request via the Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine.

Key facts. Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Test-time compute and efficient thinking, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 78 of its 98 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Sep 2025.

Builds on

78 of 98 references.

Closest ancestors · 5

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025gpt-oss-120b & gpt-oss-20b Model Card8 Aug
  2. 2025Hierarchical Reasoning Model26 Jun
  3. 2025LIFT the Veil for the Truth: Principal Weights Emerge after Rank Reduction for Reasoning-Focused Supervised Fine-Tuning1 Jun
  4. 2025Towards Thinking-Optimal Scaling of Test-Time Compute for LLM Reasoning25 Feb
  5. 2025s1: Simple test-time scaling31 Jan

Other references · 73

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  7. 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 10,109
  8. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,379
  9. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,820
  10. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,330
  11. 2022Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Modelscited by 5,708
  12. 2024Qwen2.5 Technical Reportcited by 4,942
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  6. 2020Learning to summarize from human feedbackcited by 2,588
  7. 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 2,057
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  9. 2021WebGPT: Browser-assisted question-answering with human feedbackcited by 1,745
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  12. 2024HarmBench: A Standardized Evaluation Framework for Automated Red Teaming and Robust Refusalcited by 1,429
  13. 2024Qwen2.5-Coder Technical Reportcited by 1,203
  14. 2024Qwen2.5-Math Technical Report: Toward Mathematical Expert Model via Self-Improvementcited by 1,090
  15. 2025Does Reinforcement Learning Really Incentivize Reasoning Capacity in LLMs Beyond the Base Model?cited by 982
  16. 2023Open Problems and Fundamental Limitations of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedbackcited by 759
  17. 2023Prompt Injection attack against LLM-integrated Applicationscited by 605
  18. 2025SimpleRL-Zoo: Investigating and Taming Zero Reinforcement Learning for Open Base Models in the Wildcited by 511
  19. 2025LIMO: Less is More for Reasoningcited by 498
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  21. 2023"Do Anything Now": Characterizing and Evaluating In-The-Wild Jailbreak Prompts on Large Language Modelscited by 489
  22. 2025Open-Reasoner-Zero: An Open Source Approach to Scaling Up Reinforcement Learning on the Base Modelcited by 461
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  31. 2025Reinforcement Learning for Reasoning in Large Language Models with One Training Examplecited by 295
  32. 2024Omni-MATH: A Universal Olympiad Level Mathematic Benchmark For Large Language Modelscited by 284
  33. 2023Better Zero-Shot Reasoning with Role-Play Promptingcited by 223
  34. 2023Scalable and Transferable Black-Box Jailbreaks for Language Models via Persona Modulationcited by 214
  35. 2025Learning to Reason without External Rewardscited by 210
  36. 2025Spurious Rewards: Rethinking Training Signals in RLVRcited by 209
  37. 2022On Second Thought, Let's Not Think Step by Step! Bias and Toxicity in Zero-Shot Reasoningcited by 194
  38. 2025ProRL: Prolonged Reinforcement Learning Expands Reasoning Boundaries in Large Language Modelscited by 194

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 5; 2026: 6.

11 papers.

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  1. 2025Efficient Reasoning for LLMs through Speculative Chain-of-Thought
  2. 2025Marco-o1 v2: Towards Widening The Distillation Bottleneck for Reasoning Models
  3. 2025Towards Concise and Adaptive Thinking in Large Reasoning Models: A Survey
  4. 2025Stop Overthinking: A Survey on Efficient Reasoning for Large Language Models
  5. 2025Don't Overthink It: A Survey of Efficient R1-style Large Reasoning Models
  6. 2025Efficient Reasoning Models: A Survey
  7. 2025R2-KG: General-Purpose Dual-Agent Framework for Reliable Reasoning on Knowledge Graphs
  8. 2026The Art of Efficient Reasoning: Data, Reward, and Optimization