Multi-Task GRPO: Reliable LLM Reasoning Across Tasks
On the map: LLM reasoning → Reinforcement learning for reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
RL-based post-training with GRPO is widely used to improve large language models on individual reasoning tasks. However, real-world deployment requires reliable performance across diverse tasks. A straightforward multi-task adaptation of GRPO often leads to imbalanced outcomes, with some tasks dominating optimization while others stagnate. Moreover, tasks can vary widely in how frequently prompts yield zero advantages (and thus zero gradients), which further distorts their effective contribution to the optimization signal. To address these issues, we propose a novel Multi-Task GRPO (MT-GRPO) algorithm that (i) dynamically adapts task weights to explicitly optimize worst-task performance and promote balanced progress across tasks, and (ii) introduces a ratio-preserving sampler to ensure task-wise policy gradients reflect the adapted weights. Experiments on both 3-task and 9-task settings show that MT-GRPO consistently outperforms baselines in worst-task accuracy. In particular, MT-GRPO achieves 16-28% and 6% absolute improvement on worst-task performance over standard GRPO and DAPO, respectively, while maintaining competitive average accuracy. Moreover, MT-GRPO requires 50% fewer training steps to reach 50% worst-task accuracy in the 3-task setting, demonstrating substantially improved efficiency in achieving reliable performance across tasks.
Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 57 of its 92 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Feb 2026.
Builds on
57 of 92 references.
Closest ancestors · 18
Same direction, newest first
- 2026GDPO: Group reward-Decoupled Normalization Policy Optimization for Multi-reward RL Optimization8 Jan
- 2025Multi-Reward GRPO for Stable and Prosodic Single-Codebook TTS LLMs at Scale26 Nov
- 2025Reasoning Curriculum: Bootstrapping Broad LLM Reasoning from Math30 Oct
- 2025Omni-Thinker: Scaling Multi-Task RL in LLMs with Hybrid Reward and Task Scheduling20 Jul
- 2025Curriculum Reinforcement Learning from Easy to Hard Tasks Improves LLM Reasoning7 Jun
- 2025Self-Evolving Curriculum for LLM Reasoning20 May
- 2025Learning Like Humans: Advancing LLM Reasoning Capabilities via Adaptive Difficulty Curriculum Learning and Expert-Guided Self-Reformulation13 May
- 2025Nemotron-CrossThink: Scaling Self-Learning beyond Math Reasoning15 Apr
- 2025DUMP: Automated Distribution-Level Curriculum Learning for RL-based LLM Post-training13 Apr
- 2025VAPO: Efficient and Reliable Reinforcement Learning for Advanced Reasoning Tasks7 Apr
- 2025Open-Reasoner-Zero: An Open Source Approach to Scaling Up Reinforcement Learning on the Base Model31 Mar
- 2025Understanding R1-Zero-Like Training: A Critical Perspective26 Mar
6 more
- 2025DAPO: An Open-Source LLM Reinforcement Learning System at Scale18 Mar
- 2025Learning to Reason at the Frontier of Learnability17 Feb
- 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning22 Jan
- 2024Tulu 3: Pushing Frontiers in Open Language Model Post-Training22 Nov
- 2022Constitutional AI: Harmlessness from AI Feedback15 Dec
- 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms20 Jul
Other references · 39
- 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 36,960
- 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
- 2021Measuring Mathematical Problem Solving With the MATH Datasetcited by 5,203
- 2019Fine-Tuning Language Models from Human Preferencescited by 2,124
- 2024Qwen2 Technical Reportcited by 2,076
- 2025Search-R1: Training LLMs to Reason and Leverage Search Engines with Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,371
- 2019Distributionally Robust Neural Networks for Group Shifts: On the Importance of Regularization for Worst-Case Generalizationcited by 1,232
- 2025Group Sequence Policy Optimizationcited by 788
- 2024MiniCPM: Unveiling the Potential of Small Language Models with Scalable Training Strategiescited by 694
- 2025Vision-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 653
- 2023DoReMi: Optimizing Data Mixtures Speeds Up Language Model Pretrainingcited by 385
- 2025L1: Controlling How Long A Reasoning Model Thinks With Reinforcement Learningcited by 381
27 more
- 2025MiniMax-M1: Scaling Test-Time Compute Efficiently with Lightning Attentioncited by 248
- 2024RegMix: Data Mixture as Regression for Language Model Pre-trainingcited by 172
- 2024VinePPO: Refining Credit Assignment in RL Training of LLMscited by 168
- 2020Gradient Vaccine: Investigating and Improving Multi-task Optimization in Massively Multilingual Modelscited by 167
- 2019Distributionally Robust Language Modelingcited by 142
- 2025REASONING GYM: Reasoning Environments for Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewardscited by 121
- 2020Understanding and Improving Information Transfer in Multi-Task Learningcited by 113
- 2024Back to Basics: Revisiting REINFORCE Style Optimization for Learning from Human Feedback in LLMscited by 103
- 2025Does Math Reasoning Improve General LLM Capabilities? Understanding Transferability of LLM Reasoningcited by 101
- 2025Olmo 3cited by 95
- 2023DoGE: Domain Reweighting with Generalization Estimationcited by 87
- 2021RotoGrad: Gradient Homogenization in Multitask Learningcited by 82
- 2022Auto-Lambda: Disentangling Dynamic Task Relationshipscited by 73
- 2025Nemotron-CLIMB: CLustering-based Iterative Data Mixture Bootstrapping for Language Model Pre-trainingcited by 62
- 2024Mixture-of-LoRAs: An Efficient Multitask Tuning for Large Language Modelscited by 38
- 2025MoDoMoDo: Multi-Domain Data Mixtures for Multimodal LLM Reinforcement Learningcited by 29
- 2025Learning to Optimize Multi-Objective Alignment Through Dynamic Reward Weightingcited by 23
- 2025Imbalanced Gradients in RL Post-Training of Multi-Task LLMscited by 19
- 2024Task-Adaptive Pretrained Language Models via Clustered-Importance Samplingcited by 18
- 2024Mixing It Up: The Cocktail Effect of Multi-Task Fine-Tuning on LLM Performance -- A Case Study in Financecited by 15
- 2024CoBa: Convergence Balancer for Multitask Finetuning of Large Language Modelscited by 12
- 2025MedGRPO: Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning for Heterogeneous Medical Video Understandingcited by 8
- 2025TempR1: Improving Temporal Understanding of MLLMs via Temporal-Aware Multi-Task Reinforcement Learningcited by 7
- 2025MT3: Scaling MLLM-based Text Image Machine Translation via Multi-Task Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
- 2025GRAPE: Optimize Data Mixture for Group Robust Multi-target Adaptive Pretrainingcited by 4
- 2023Aurora:Activating Chinese chat capability for Mixtral-8x7B sparse Mixture-of-Experts through Instruction-Tuningcited by 3
- 2024BoRA: Bayesian Hierarchical Low-Rank Adaption for Multi-Task Large Language Modelscited by 1
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 12.
12 papers.
- 2026Transferability for General Reasoning: An Automated Curriculum for Multi-Domain RLVRcited by 4
- 2026Your Language Model is Its Own Critic: Reinforcement Learning with Value Estimation from Actor's Internal Statescited by 2
- 2026Harmony in Diversity: Multi-domain Contrastive Policy Optimization for Large Reasoning Modelscited by 2
- 2026Learn What's Left, Not What's Mastered: Saturation Aware Advantage Reweighting for Multi-Reward Policy Optimizationcited by 2
- 2026One Step, One Lead: Mitigating Higher-Order Interference in Multi-Domain Reinforcement Learning via Cross-Step Controlcited by 1
- 2026Target Policy Optimizationcited by 0
- 2026M2A: Synergizing Mathematical and Agentic Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 0
- 2026CARE-RL: Capability-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Mitigating Cross-Domain Conflictscited by 0
- 2026Building Multi-Task Agentic LLMs via Two-Phase Distillationcited by 0
- 2026World Feedback for Clinical Agents: Diagnosing RL in FHIR Environmentscited by 0
- 2026DuoOPD: Learning from Joint Teacher-Student Outcomes for Multi-Task On-Policy Distillationcited by 0
- 2026Frontier Learning: Training LLM Reasoners at the Edge of Capabilitycited by 0
- 2026Frontier Learning: Training LLM Reasoners at the Edge of Capability28 Sep 2026
- 2026DuoOPD: Learning from Joint Teacher-Student Outcomes for Multi-Task On-Policy Distillation27 Sep 2026
- 2026One Step, One Lead: Mitigating Higher-Order Interference in Multi-Domain Reinforcement Learning via Cross-Step Control6 Sep 2026
- 2026Learn What's Left, Not What's Mastered: Saturation Aware Advantage Reweighting for Multi-Reward Policy Optimization17 Aug 2026
- 2026World Feedback for Clinical Agents: Diagnosing RL in FHIR Environments1 Jul 2026
- 2026Building Multi-Task Agentic LLMs via Two-Phase Distillation29 Jun 2026
- 2026Transferability for General Reasoning: An Automated Curriculum for Multi-Domain RLVR23 Jun 2026
- 2026CARE-RL: Capability-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Mitigating Cross-Domain Conflicts30 May 2026
- 2026Harmony in Diversity: Multi-domain Contrastive Policy Optimization for Large Reasoning Models25 May 2026
- 2026M2A: Synergizing Mathematical and Agentic Reasoning in Large Language Models11 May 2026
- 2026Your Language Model is Its Own Critic: Reinforcement Learning with Value Estimation from Actor's Internal States8 May 2026
- 2026Target Policy Optimization7 Apr 2026
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