Recommendation System Concepts
Types of Recommendation Systems
Collaborative Filtering
"Users who liked X also liked Y"
User-based CF:
1. Find users similar to target user
2. Recommend items those users liked
3. Weight by similarity score
Item-based CF:
1. Find items similar to items user liked
2. Recommend similar items
3. More scalable than user-based
Matrix Factorization:
- Decompose user-item matrix
- Learn latent factors
- SVD, ALS algorithms
Content-Based Filtering
"Items similar to what you've liked"
Process:
1. Extract item features (TF-IDF, embeddings)
2. Build user profile from liked items
3. Match new items to user profile
Features:
- Text (descriptions, tags)
- Categories
- Attributes (color, size, brand)
- Embeddings (deep learning)
Hybrid Systems
Combine multiple approaches:
Weighted:
score = α * CF_score + β * CB_score
Switching:
IF cold_start THEN content_based
ELSE collaborative
Feature Combination:
Use CF scores as features in ML model
Cascade:
1. Filter with content-based
2. Rank with collaborative
Cold Start Problem
New User Cold Start:
- No interaction history
- Solutions:
• Ask preferences on signup
• Use demographic data
• Popular items fallback
• Content-based until enough data
New Item Cold Start:
- No user interactions
- Solutions:
• Content-based similarity
• Boost in exploration
• Editorial placement
Recommendation Scenarios
E-commerce
Homepage:
- Trending products
- Personalized picks
- Recently viewed
Product Page:
- "Frequently bought together"
- "Customers also viewed"
- "Complete the look"
Cart:
- Cross-sell recommendations
- Bundle suggestions
Content Platforms
Feed:
- Personalized content stream
- Explore/discover section
After consumption:
- "Up next"
- "More like this"
- Related content
Search:
- Personalized search results
- "You might also search for"
Social Networks
People:
- "People you may know"
- "Follow suggestions"
Content:
- Personalized feed ranking
- Trending in your network
Groups:
- "Groups you might like"
- Activity suggestions
Evaluation Metrics
Offline Metrics
Accuracy:
- Precision@K: % of recommended items that are relevant
- Recall@K: % of relevant items that are recommended
- NDCG: Normalized discounted cumulative gain
Error:
- RMSE: Root mean square error (ratings)
- MAE: Mean absolute error
Ranking:
- MRR: Mean reciprocal rank
- AUC: Area under ROC curve
Online Metrics
Engagement:
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Time spent
Business:
- Revenue per user
- Items per order
- Return rate
Long-term:
- User retention
- Diversity of consumption
- Filter bubble effects
A/B Testing Recommendations
Test design:
- Control: Existing algorithm
- Treatment: New algorithm
- Split: Random user assignment
Metrics to track:
- Primary: CTR or conversion
- Secondary: Revenue, engagement
- Guardrails: Page load time
Statistical considerations:
- Sample size for power
- Duration for effects
- Novelty effects
Architecture Patterns
Real-time vs Batch
Batch (pre-computed):
- Generate recommendations offline
- Store in cache/database
- Fast serving
- Updated periodically
Real-time:
- Compute on request
- Uses latest interactions
- More resource intensive
- Better personalization
Hybrid:
- Batch for base recommendations
- Real-time for re-ranking
- Periodic refresh
Feature Store
Store and serve ML features:
- User features (preferences, history)
- Item features (attributes, embeddings)
- Context features (time, location)
Benefits:
- Consistency between training/serving
- Feature reuse across models
- Point-in-time correctness
Data Requirements
Implicit feedback:
- Views, clicks, purchases
- Time spent
- Saves/bookmarks
Explicit feedback:
- Ratings
- Reviews
- Likes/dislikes
Context:
- Timestamp
- Device
- Location
- Session data
Related Skills
recommendations-spring: Spring Boot recommendation implementationanalytics-concepts: Analytics for tracking interactions
jnzader-vault