Formalize, Don't Optimize: The Heuristic Trap in LLM-Generated Combinatorial Solvers
Large Language Models (LLMs) struggle to solve complex combinatorial problems through direct reasoning, so recent neuro-symbolic systems increasingly use them to synthesize executable solvers. A central design question is how the LLM should represent the solver, and whether it should also attempt to optimize search. We introduce CP-SynC-XL, a benchmark of 100 combinatorial problems (4,577 instances), and evaluate three solver-construction paradigms: native algorithmic search (Python), constraint modeling through a Python solver API (Python + OR-Tools), and declarative constraint modeling (MiniZinc + OR-Tools). We find a consistent representational divergence: Python + OR-Tools attains the...
| Authors | Haoyu Wang, Yuliang Song, Tao Li et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 12 May 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 12 May 2026 |
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