Word.ws English Dictionary

secretary problem

secretary problem noun: the problem of selecting the best out of n applicants for a position, under the condition that all applicants are interviewed in random order, the quality of the applicants is not known before interviewing, and once rejected an applicant cannot be recalled.

Noun

secretary problem (plural secretary problems)

  1. The problem of selecting the best out of n applicants for a position, under the condition that all applicants are interviewed in random order, the quality of the applicants is not known before interviewing, and once rejected an applicant cannot be recalled.

Forms of secretary problem

pluralsecretary problems

Questions about secretary problem

What does secretary problem mean?
Secretary problem means the problem of selecting the best out of n applicants for a position, under the condition that all applicants are interviewed in random order, the quality of the applicants is not known before interviewing, and once rejected an applicant cannot be recalled.
What part of speech is secretary problem?
Secretary problem is a noun.
What is the plural of secretary problem?
The plural of secretary problem is secretary problems.

Words near secretary problem in the dictionary

  1. secretary desks
  2. secretary general
  3. secretary hand
  4. secretary hands
  5. secretary of state
  6. secretary problem
  7. secretary problems
  8. secretary spread
  9. secretary-general
  10. secretarybird
  11. secretarybirds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: secretary problem (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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