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STRIDE: Strategic Iterative Decision-Making for Retrieval-Augmented Multi-Hop Question Answering

sigir26-179 · Full research paper · Wei Chen, Lili Zhao, Zhi Zheng, HuiJun Hou, Tong Xu
Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Re · 25% Agentic and Deep Search RAG · 25% Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain · 25% Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA · 25%
Abstract

Multi-hop question answering (MHQA) enables accurate answers to complex queries by retrieving and reasoning over evidence dispersed across multiple documents. Existing MHQA approaches mainly rely on iterative retrieval-augmented generation, which suffer from the following two major issues. On one hand, existing methods prematurely commit to surface-level entities rather than underlying reasoning structures, making question decomposition highly vulnerable to lexical ambiguity. On the other hand, existing methods overlook the logical dependencies among reasoning steps, resulting in uncoordinated execution. To address these issues, we propose STRIDE, a framework that separates strategic planning, dynamic control, and grounded execution. At its core, a Meta-Planner first constructs an entity-agnostic reasoning skeleton to capture the abstract logic of the query, thereby deferring entity grounding until after the reasoning structure is established, which mitigates disambiguation errors caused by premature lexical commitment. A Supervisor then orchestrates sub-question execution in a dependency-aware manner, enabling efficient parallelization where possible and sequential coordination when necessary. By dynamically deciding whether to retrieve new evidence or infer from existing facts, it avoids redundant queries and error propagation, while fusing cross-branch information and reformulating failed queries to enhance robustness. Grounded fact extraction and logical inference are delegated to specialized execution modules, ensuring faithfulness through explicit separation of retrieval and reasoning. While STRIDE is compatible with any large language models (LLMs), off-the-shelf open-source LLMs underperform closed-source counterparts in its structured reasoning pipeline. To close this gap, we further propose STRIDE-FT, a modular fine-tuning framework that uses self-generated execution trajectories from STRIDE, requiring neither human annotations nor stronger teacher models. Experiments show that STRIDE achieves robust and accurate reasoning on MHQA benchmarks, while STRIDE-FT effectively enhances open-source LLMs.

Assigned reviewers

#ReviewerMatchWhy (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy)
1 Chen Zhao 0013
57
87 SportReason: Evaluating Retrieval-Augmented Reasoning across Tables and Text for Sports Question Answering (2025) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
64 Distantly-Supervised Dense Retrieval Enables Open-Domain Question Answering without Evidence Annotation (2021) Dense Bi-Encoder Training and Representation Learning
62 TaPERA: Enhancing Faithfulness and Interpretability in Long-Form Table QA by Content Planning and Execution-based Reasoning (2024) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
2 Ori Yoran
52
74 Making Retrieval-Augmented Language Models Robust to Irrelevant Context (2024) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement
67 MultiModalQA: complex question answering over text, tables and images (2021) Multimodal and Cross-Modal Retrieval › Others
63 Answering Questions by Meta-Reasoning over Multiple Chains of Thought (2023) Reasoning-Intensive Retrieval and Ranking
3 Jinheon Baek
48
62 Knowledge-Augmented Reasoning Distillation for Small Language Models in Knowledge-Intensive Tasks (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
60 Adaptive-RAG: Learning to Adapt Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models through Question Complexity (2024) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
59 Realistic Conversational Question Answering with Answer Selection based on Calibrated Confidence and Uncertainty Measurement (2023) Conversational Search and Retrieval

Area chair

Area chairMatch
Xiaoxi Li 0005 51
Area-chair candidates (4)
Xiaoxi Li 0005 assigned 5115 papers
Zhijing Wu 0001 479 papers
Hongjin Qian 4612 papers
Jun Xu 0001 402 papers

Candidates from the panel ranked by match score

#ReviewerMatchLoadWhy
1 Wenyu Huang 59 3
70 Prompting large language models with knowledge graphs for question answering involving long-tail facts (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning
62 Masking in Multi-hop QA: An Analysis of How Language Models Perform with Context Permutation (2025) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
2 Chen Zhao 0013 assigned 57 3
87 SportReason: Evaluating Retrieval-Augmented Reasoning across Tables and Text for Sports Question Answering (2025) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
64 Distantly-Supervised Dense Retrieval Enables Open-Domain Question Answering without Evidence Annotation (2021) Dense Bi-Encoder Training and Representation Learning
3 Idan Szpektor 55 3
62 DisentQA: Disentangling Parametric and Contextual Knowledge with Counterfactual Question Answering (2023) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness
59 SIGIR 2016 Workshop WebQA II: Web Question Answering Beyond Factoids (2016) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
4 Adam Jatowt 55 3
72 ArchivalQA: A Large-scale Benchmark Dataset for Open-Domain Question Answering over Historical News Collections (2022) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
62 Inferential Question Answering (2026) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
5 Farzad Shami 53 3
59 From Single to Multi-agent Reasoning: Advancing GeneGPT for Genomics QA (2026) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
40 Benchmarking Large Language Models for Knowledge Graph Validation (2026) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning
6 Ori Yoran assigned 52 3
74 Making Retrieval-Augmented Language Models Robust to Irrelevant Context (2024) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement
67 MultiModalQA: complex question answering over text, tables and images (2021) Multimodal and Cross-Modal Retrieval › Others
8 Xingyu Tan 0001 50 3
58 HydraRAG: Structured Cross-Source Enhanced Large Language Model Reasoning (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning
58 Paths-over-Graph: Knowledge Graph Empowered Large Language Model Reasoning (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning
9 Yu Gu 0016 COI: co-author 50 3
60 Few-shot In-context Learning on Knowledge Base Question Answering (2023) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
58 ArcaneQA: Dynamic Program Induction and Contextualized Encoding for Knowledge Base Question Answering (2022) Knowledge Graph Question Answering
10 Qinggang Zhang 50 3
62 Knapsack Optimization-Based Schema Linking for LLM-Based Text-to-SQL Generation (2026) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
60 You Don't Need Pre-Built Graphs for RAG: Retrieval Augmented Generation with Adaptive Reasoning Structures (2026) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
11 Qisheng Hu 49 3
62 Just What You Desire: Constrained Timeline Summarization with Self-Reflection for Enhanced Relevance (2025) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
38 Coordinating Search-Informed Reasoning and Reasoning-Guided Search in Claim Verification (2026) Automated Fact Checking and Claim Verification
12 Kaixin Ma 48 3
60 Open Domain Question Answering with A Unified Knowledge Interface (2022) Multimodal and Graph RAG
60 Knowledge-driven Data Construction for Zero-shot Evaluation in Commonsense Question Answering (2021) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
13 Jing Liu 0022 48 3
62 Investigating the Factual Knowledge Boundary of Large Language Models with Retrieval Augmentation (2025) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness
59 A Regularized Competition Model for Question Difficulty Estimation in Community Question Answering Services (2014) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
14 Jinheon Baek assigned 48 3
62 Knowledge-Augmented Reasoning Distillation for Small Language Models in Knowledge-Intensive Tasks (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
60 Adaptive-RAG: Learning to Adapt Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models through Question Complexity (2024) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
16 Jiapu Wang 47 3
87 Decomposing and Revising What Language Models Generate (2025) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
87 Atomic Fact Decomposition Helps Attributed Question Answering (2025) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
17 Shu Zhou 0002 47 3
70 Enhancing Extractive Question Answering in Multiparty Dialogues with Logical Inference Memory Network (2025) Conversational Search and Retrieval
60 DynKGRAG: A framework for dynamic knowledge graph construction and multi-hop querying over numerical and textual data (2026) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
18 Mariano Barone 46 3
60 SOLVE-Med: Specialized Orchestration for Leading Vertical Experts Across Medical Specialties (2025) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
52 A Multilingual Multimodal Medical Examination Dataset for Visual Question Answering in Healthcare (2025) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
19 Xinying Qian 46 3
62 Beyond Timestamps: Bridging Forward and Backward Reasoning in Temporal Numerical and Relational Understanding (2026) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
60 TimeR⁴ : Time-aware Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models for Temporal Knowledge Graph Question Answering (2024) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
21 Xi Ye 0003 46 3
68 Query-Focused Retrieval Heads Improve Long-Context Reasoning and Re-ranking (2025) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
62 Connecting Attributions and QA Model Behavior on Realistic Counterfactuals (2021) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
22 Falk Scholer 45 3
72 WikiHowQA: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Multi-Document Non-Factoid Question Answering (2023) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
58 Document Summarization for Answering Non-Factoid Queries (2018) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
23 Tianzhe Zhao 45 3
61 Are Large Language Models Really Good Logical Reasoners? A Comprehensive Evaluation and Beyond (2025) Reasoning Evaluation and Benchmarks
55 PathReasoner: Modeling Reasoning Path with Equivalent Extension for Logical Question Answering (2024) Search Agents and LLM Reasoning › Others
24 Wenlin Zhang 0001 COI: co-author 44 3
57 MemSearch-o1: Empowering Large Language Models with Reasoning-Aligned Memory Growth in Agentic Search (2026) Agentic and Deep Search RAG
54 To Search or Not to Search: Aligning the Decision Boundary of Deep Search Agents via Causal Intervention (2026) Agentic and Deep Search RAG
25 Archiki Prasad 44 3
59 MeetingQA: Extractive Question-Answering on Meeting Transcripts (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
58 PRInTS: Reward Modeling for Long-Horizon Information Seeking (2026) Reward Modeling and Process Supervision
26 Qingyi Si 44 3
57 Are Large Language Models Table-based Fact-Checkers? (2024) Automated Fact Checking and Claim Verification
55 Combo of Thinking and Observing for Outside-Knowledge VQA (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
27 Liwei Wang 0009 44 3
62 Making Long-Context Language Models Better Multi-Hop Reasoners (2024) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
59 MVP-Tuning: Multi-View Knowledge Retrieval with Prompt Tuning for Commonsense Reasoning (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
28 Corby Rosset 43 3
75 Transformer-XH: Multi-Evidence Reasoning with eXtra Hop Attention (2020) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning
52 Axiomatic Preference Modeling for Longform Question Answering (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
29 Daiting Shi 43 3
62 A Question-Oriented Propagation Network for News Reading Comprehension (2022) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA
44 Utility-Focused LLM Annotation for Retrieval and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (2025) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement
30 Yingyi Zhang 0001 COI: co-author 43 3
57 MemSearch-o1: Empowering Large Language Models with Reasoning-Aligned Memory Growth in Agentic Search (2026) Agentic and Deep Search RAG
52 Process vs. Outcome Reward: Which is Better for Agentic RAG Reinforcement Learning (2025) Agentic and Deep Search RAG
31 Haritz Puerto 43 3
60 MetaQA: Combining Expert Agents for Multi-Skill Question Answering (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA
37 C-SEO Bench: Does Conversational SEO Work? (2025) Reasoning Evaluation and Benchmarks
32 Yuzhong Qu 43 3
58 Enhancing Complex Question Answering over Knowledge Graphs through Evidence Pattern Retrieval (2024) Knowledge Graph Question Answering
58 Skeleton parsing for complex question answering over knowledge bases (2022) Knowledge Graph Question Answering
33 Weiwei Sun 0001 42 3
54 Improving Retrieval-Augmented Generation through Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (2025) Agentic and Deep Search RAG
47 Direct Retrieval-augmented Optimization: Synergizing Knowledge Selection and Language Models (2026) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement