A $1/2$-Approximation for Pandora's Problem with Deadlines

Abstract

Pandora's problem is a fundamental model of sequential search in which opening each box incurs a cost. We study the variant with deadlines, where each box has a publicly known deadline for both opening and selection. We prove that a simple threshold strategy achieves a $1/2$-approximation to the optimal expected utility, improving the previous guarantee of $(e-1)/(4e)\approx0.158$ due to Berger et al. (AAAI 2024).