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Essay

Analyzing the utility of learning curves

Question: Explain what a learning curve is and why it might be considered an informative technique in machine learning.

Sample answer: A learning curve is a diagnostic plot that graphs a learning algorithm's dev-set error against the number of training examples used. It is informative because it visually demonstrates how the algorithm's performance on unseen data (the dev set) changes as it is exposed to more training data. This allows practitioners to observe trends and make informed decisions.

Key points:

  • Plots dev-set error
  • Plots against number of training examples
  • Considered highly informative for observing trends

Rubric: The student must define the axes of a learning curve (dev-set error vs. number of training examples) and explain its informational value.

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Updated 2026-06-14

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Machine Learning

Deep Learning

Supervised Learning

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Data Science

Machine Learning Strategy

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