OpenDeepThink: Parallel Reasoning via Bradley-Terry Aggregation
On the map: LLM reasoning → Test-time compute and efficient thinking
Abstract (arXiv)
Test-time compute scaling is a primary axis for improving LLM reasoning. Existing methods primarily scale depth by extending a single reasoning trace. Scaling breadth by sampling multiple candidates in parallel is straightforward, but introduces a selection bottleneck: choosing the best candidate without a ground-truth verifier, since pointwise LLM judging is noisy and biased. To address this, we introduce OpenDeepThink, a population-based test-time compute framework that selects via pairwise Bradley-Terry comparison. Each generation, the LLM judges random pairs of candidates and aggregates votes via Bradley-Terry into a global ranking; top-ranked candidates are preserved and the top three quarters are mutated using the natural-language critiques produced during comparison; the bottom quarter is discarded. OpenDeepThink raises Gemini 3.1 Pro's effective Codeforces Elo by +405 points in eight sequential LLM-call rounds (~27 minutes wall-clock). The pipeline transfers across weaker and stronger models without retuning, and on the multi-domain HLE benchmark, gains appear concentrated in objectively verifiable domains and reverse in subjective ones. We release CF-73, a curated set of 73 expert-rated Codeforces problems with International Grandmaster annotation and 99% local-evaluation agreement against the official verdict.
Key facts. Cited by 3 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 23 of its 36 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 May 2026.
Builds on
23 of 36 references.
Closest ancestors · 8
Same direction, newest first
- 2026V1: Unifying Generation and Self-Verification for Parallel Reasoners4 Mar
- 2026PaCoRe: Learning to Scale Test-Time Compute with Parallel Coordinated Reasoning9 Jan
- 2025Rethinking Thinking Tokens: LLMs as Improvement Operators1 Oct
- 2025ParaThinker: Native Parallel Thinking as a New Paradigm to Scale LLM Test-time Compute30 Aug
- 2025Learning to Reason Across Parallel Samples for LLM Reasoning10 Jun
- 2024Scaling LLM Test-Time Compute Optimally can be More Effective than Scaling Model Parameters6 Aug
- 2024Inference Scaling Laws: An Empirical Analysis of Compute-Optimal Inference for Problem-Solving with Language Models1 Aug
- 2023Large Language Models Cannot Self-Correct Reasoning Yet3 Oct
Other references · 15
- 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 10,109
- 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,330
- 2022Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Modelscited by 5,708
- 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,796
- 2024OpenAI o1 System Cardcited by 1,244
- 2024Chatbot Arena: An Open Platform for Evaluating LLMs by Human Preferencecited by 1,184
- 2024Large Language Monkeys: Scaling Inference Compute with Repeated Samplingcited by 991
- 2025AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discoverycited by 867
- 2025Humanity's Last Examcited by 491
- 2023EvoPrompt: Connecting LLMs with Evolutionary Algorithms Yields Powerful Prompt Optimizerscited by 193
- 2025LiveCodeBench Pro: How Do Olympiad Medalists Judge LLMs in Competitive Programming?cited by 55
- 2025Multiverse: Your Language Models Secretly Decide How to Parallelize and Merge Generationcited by 30
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.
3 papers.
- 2026When Agents Slow Down: Understanding LLM Agents' Test-Time Strategies via Elo-per-token Analysiscited by 2
- 2026Stellar Colosseum: A Many-Agent Harness for Long-Horizon Research in Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Sciencecited by 1
- 2026Second Thought: Reasoning in Parallel as LLM Agents Act and Observecited by 0
- 2026Stellar Colosseum: A Many-Agent Harness for Long-Horizon Research in Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science14 Sep 2026
- 2026When Agents Slow Down: Understanding LLM Agents' Test-Time Strategies via Elo-per-token Analysis14 Sep 2026
- 2026Second Thought: Reasoning in Parallel as LLM Agents Act and Observe13 Aug 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026ThinkBooster: A Unified Framework for Seamless Test-Time Scaling of LLM Reasoning
- 2026Refining Over Resampling: Test-Time Self-Correction for LLM Reasoning
- 2025Reasoning on a Budget: A Survey of Adaptive and Controllable Test-Time Compute in LLMs
- 2025The Virtues of Brevity: Avoid Overthinking in Parallel Test-Time Reasoning
- 2025Prompting Test-Time Scaling Is A Strong LLM Reasoning Data Augmentation
- 2025Slim-SC: Thought Pruning for Efficient Scaling with Self-Consistency
- 2025Don't Overthink it. Preferring Shorter Thinking Chains for Improved LLM Reasoning
- 2025The Sequential Edge: Inverse-Entropy Voting Beats Parallel Self-Consistency at Matched Compute