Recent concurrent work by Dupré la Tour and Fujii and by Hollender, Manurangsi, Meka, and Suksompong [ITCS'26] introduced a generalization of classical discrepancy theory to non-additive functions, motivated by applications in fair division. As many classical techniques from discrepancy theory seem to fail in this setting, including linear algebraic methods like the Beck-Fiala Theorem [Discrete Appl. Math '81], it remains widely open whether comparable non-additive bounds can be achieved. Towards a better understanding of non-additive discrepancy, we study coverage functions in a sparse setting comparable to the classical Beck-Fiala Theorem. Our setting generalizes the additive Beck-Fiala setting, rank functions of partition matroids, and edge coverage in graphs. More precisely, assuming each of the n items covers only t elements across all functions, we prove a constructive discrepancy bound that is polynomial in t, the number of colors k, and log n.

Evaluating a polynomial on a set of points is a fundamental task in computer algebra. In this work, we revisit a particular variant called trimmed multipoint evaluation: given an n-variate polynomial with bounded individual degree d and total degree D, the goal is to evaluate it on a natural class of input points. This problem arises as a key subroutine in recent algorithmic results [Dinur; SODA’21], [Dell, Haak, Kallmayer, Wennmann; SODA’25]. It is known that trimmed multipoint evaluation can be solved in near-linear time [van der Hoeven, Schost; AAECC’13] by a clever yet somewhat involved algorithm. We give a simple recursive algorithm that avoids heavy computer-algebraic machinery, and can be readily understood by researchers without specialized background.

We present a dependent randomized rounding scheme, which rounds fractional solutions to integral solutions satisfying certain hard constraints on the output while preserving Chernoff-like concentration properties. In contrast to previous dependent rounding schemes, our algorithm guarantees that the cost of the rounded integral solution does not exceed that of the fractional solution. Our algorithm works for a class of assignment problems with restrictions similar to those of prior works. In a non-trivial combination of our general result with a classical approach from Shmoys and Tardos [Math. Programm.'93] and more recent linear programming techniques developed for the restricted assignment variant by Bansal, Sviridenko [STOC'06] and Davies, Rothvoss, Zhang [SODA'20], we derive a O(log n)-approximation algorithm for the Budgeted Santa Claus Problem. In this new variant, the goal is to allocate resources with different values to players, maximizing the minimum value a player receives, and satisfying a budget constraint on player-resource allocation costs.

We present a randomized algorithm for solving low-degree polynomial equation systems over finite fields faster than exhaustive search. In order to do so, we follow a line of work by Lokshtanov, Paturi, Tamaki, Williams, and Yu (SODA 2017), Björklund, Kaski, and Williams (ICALP 2019), and Dinur (SODA 2021). In particular, we generalize Dinur’s algorithm for 𝔽2 to all finite fields, in particular the “symbolic interpolation” of Björklund, Kaski, and Williams, and we use an efficient trimmed multipoint evaluation and interpolation procedure for multivariate polynomials over finite fields by Van der Hoeven and Schost (AAECC 2013). The running time of our algorithm matches that of Dinur’s algorithm for 𝔽2 and is significantly faster than the one of Lokshtanov et al. for q > 2.

In this work we revisit the elementary scheduling problem 1||∑ p_j U_j. The goal is to select, among n jobs with processing times and due dates, a subset of jobs with maximum total processing time that can be scheduled in sequence without violating their due dates. This problem is NP-hard, but a classical algorithm by Lawler and Moore from the 60s solves this problem in pseudo-polynomial time O(nP), where P is the total processing time of all jobs. With the aim to develop best-possible pseudo-polynomial-time algorithms, a recent wave of results has improved Lawler and Moore’s algorithm for 1||∑ p_j U_j: First to time Õ(P^{7/4}) [Bringmann, Fischer, Hermelin, Shabtay, Wellnitz; ICALP'20], then to time Õ(P^{5/3}) [Klein, Polak, Rohwedder; SODA'23], and finally to time Õ(P^{7/5}) [Schieber, Sitaraman; WADS'23]. It remained an exciting open question whether these works can be improved further. In this work we develop an algorithm in near-linear time Õ(P) for the 1||∑ p_j U_j problem. This running time not only significantly improves upon the previous results, but also matches conditional lower bounds based on the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis or the Set Cover Hypothesis and is therefore likely optimal (up to subpolynomial factors). Our new algorithm also extends to the case of m machines in time Õ(P^m). In contrast to the previous improvements, we take a different, more direct approach inspired by the recent reductions from Modular Subset Sum to dynamic string problems. We thereby arrive at a satisfyingly simple algorithm.