Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 218 4 d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A binary logistic regression setsand classifies by the sign of . Its unpenalized maximum-likelihood estimator minimizes the empirical logistic lossThe plotted data are complete separation data: there is a vector with every signed margin . For every finite , increasing strictly decreases each term of , and as . No finite parameter attains zero, so the unpenalized optimization has no solution.
Adding an penalty with , constraining , or using a finite stopping rule makes the problem attain a finite approximate solution. The penalized option is preferable because cross-validation can select the strength of regularization.