Implement SGD and locate the noise floor
CodingAdvanced⏱ 3 hoursSGDsgdimplementationnoise floorschedules
Problem
Implement SGD on a strongly convex quadratic with an explicit Gaussian gradient oracle.
- Verify the two-phase behaviour: geometric decay followed by a plateau.
- Verify that the plateau height is proportional to by sweeping and .
- Compare constant, and schedules; fit the asymptotic slopes.
- Add mini-batching and confirm the floor scales as .
Implement it, then check the implementation against something you can verify independently.
Write it
Solve it here4 tests · Python runs in your browser
⌘/Ctrl + ↵ to run · limit 40s · draft saved in this browser
4 tests will run against your code. The first run downloads the Python runtime — several megabytes, once per browser.
Solution
Opening this before you have a real attempt on paper is the fastest way to feel like you understand something you cannot reproduce.
Related problems
All problems| Solved | Problem | Field | Type | Difficulty | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implement backpropagation from scratch run | Deep Learning | Coding | 3 hours | ||
| Implement kernel ridge regression run | Classical ML | Coding | 1 hour | ||
| Implement multi-head attention from scratch run | Deep Learning | Coding | 3 hours | ||
| Implement power iteration and verify the convergence rate run | Foundations | Coding | 1 hour | ||
| Implement random projection and measure the distortion run | High-Dim Probability | Coding | 1 hour |