
Ask HS: can TensorFlow be used for combinatorial optimization problems? - bischofs
Working on a scheduling problem - I have heard of  neural networks being used for this problem domain but wasn&#x27;t sure TF covered this domain.
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mmaroti
You can use the tensor formalism to express combinatorial problems, but these
will not be smooth, so gradient descent algorithms will not work. However, you
can turn such boolean tensor problems into huge SAT problems and solve them
with SAT solvers. See for example here:
[https://github.com/mmaroti/uasat](https://github.com/mmaroti/uasat)

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juxtaposicion
In general, TensorFlow and other automatic differentiation frameworks
(Chainer, Torch, Theano, etc.) operate on gradient descent of smooth
functions. If you can recast your combinatorial problem into a smooth
function, then these frameworks may be applicable. However, most combinatorial
optimization problems aren't readily transformed into smooth functions, so
this is unlikely to be straightforward.

