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LightGBM fails to fit interaction data where CatBoost succeeds

A user on Reddit's r/MachineLearning subreddit is seeking to understand why LightGBM struggles to fit a simple toy dataset that models interaction effects, while CatBoost handles it perfectly. The user's experiment involves a target variable dependent on the interaction of two explanatory variables. Despite creating a specific interaction variable ('AB') and configuring LightGBM with minimal leaf size, the model fails to achieve a perfect fit. In contrast, CatBoost demonstrates an ability to perfectly model the data, even without an explicit interaction feature, prompting the user to inquire about the underlying differences in their fitting mechanisms. AI

IMPACT Highlights potential differences in how gradient boosting models handle interaction terms, which could inform model selection for specific tasks.

RANK_REASON User question about model behavior, not a release or research finding.

Read on r/MachineLearning →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

LightGBM fails to fit interaction data where CatBoost succeeds

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COVERAGE [1]

  1. r/MachineLearning TIER_1 English(EN) · /u/Phunfactory ·

    Why does lightgbm not fit my toy example but catboost does? (2 order interactions) [D]

    <!-- SC_OFF --><div class="md"><p>I am trying understand how tree-based regression model handle the dependencies of the target variables on the interaction of explanatory variables.</p> <p>However my experiment revealed that my understanding about the fitting process of a lgbm is…