2b or not 2b ? Custom LLM Scheduling Competition [P]

Reddit r/MachineLearning / 4/23/2026

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Key Points

  • The author launched a Kaggle competition focused on deciding when to run a small LLM versus skipping a question to reduce token/compute costs.
  • Participants use MMLU benchmark questions and choose between running the small model ("2b") or not running any model ("none").
  • The scoring uses a weighted, cost-based metric that penalizes wasted compute, expensive failures, and also penalizes skipping when running would have succeeded.
  • The competition currently keeps the cost of running the model fixed (it does not model variable runtime cost yet), but the author plans to add more models over time to improve decision-making.

Hey everyone,

I am generally interested in resource management and notably reducing the token cost for a given answer. So I just launched a Kaggle competition around a simple question: whether you should run a small model or not. I plan to add more model over time for better decision making.

Here is the competition: https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/llm-scheduling-competition

The idea:

  • You get questions from the MMLU benchmark
  • Instead of answering them, you decide:
    • 2b → run a small model
    • none → skip it

Then there is a cost-based metric:

  • running the model costs compute
  • running it when it fails is expensive
  • skipping when it would have worked is also penalized

So the goal is to minimise weighted cost.

Currently the set up is quite simple as the cost to run your model is no taken into account. Still it might be a first step in the right direction.

Curious to see what people come up with—rules, classifiers, or something more creative.

Happy to discuss ideas or answer questions!

submitted by /u/WERE_CAT
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