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Finding matching suggestions is only half the battle. When a user types "app", your system might find 10,000 matching terms: "apple", "application", "appointment", "appetite", "appreciation", and countless more. Which five do you show?
Ranking is the process of ordering candidates to maximize user satisfaction. It's where search becomes an art as much as a science—balancing objective signals like popularity with subjective factors like personalization and freshness.
This page takes you through the complete ranking stack: from simple heuristics through sophisticated machine learning models, teaching you to design ranking systems that feel intelligent to users.
By completing this page, you'll understand scoring function design, multi-signal combination strategies, personalization techniques, contextual ranking, the cold start problem, and how production systems like Google and Amazon rank autocomplete suggestions.
Ranking is fundamentally about combining signals into a single score that predicts user satisfaction. Each signal captures a different aspect of relevance.
Core Ranking Signals
Production autocomplete systems consider multiple signal categories:
| Signal Category | Examples | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Query Match Quality | Prefix length, edit distance, position of match | How well does suggestion match input? |
| Popularity (Global) | Search frequency, click-through rate, trend velocity | What do most users want? |
| Personalization | User history, preferences, demographics | What does THIS user want? |
| Freshness | Recency of content, trending topics | Is suggestion timely? |
| Authority | Source quality, brand recognition | Is suggestion trustworthy? |
| Context | Location, device, time of day, previous queries | What's the user's situation? |
The Scoring Function
The fundamental structure of ranking is a scoring function S that takes a query q, suggestion s, and context c, returning a real-valued score:
S(q, s, c) = w₁·f₁(q, s, c) + w₂·f₂(q, s, c) + ... + wₙ·fₙ(q, s, c)
Where:
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from dataclasses import dataclassfrom typing import Optionalimport math @dataclassclass Suggestion: term: str prefix_match_length: int edit_distance: int global_popularity: float # 0-1 normalized user_history_score: float # 0-1 normalized freshness_score: float # 0-1 normalized @dataclassclass RankingContext: query: str user_id: Optional[str] location: Optional[str] timestamp: float previous_queries: list[str] class BasicRanker: """ Simple linear combination of ranking signals. This is the starting point for most ranking systems. Each signal contributes linearly to final score. """ def __init__(self): # Initial weights (tuned via offline evaluation or A/B tests) self.weights = { 'prefix_match': 0.30, # How well query matches 'popularity': 0.25, # Global popularity 'personalization': 0.20, # User-specific relevance 'freshness': 0.15, # Recency 'edit_distance': 0.10, # Penalize fuzzy matches } def score(self, query: str, suggestion: Suggestion, context: RankingContext) -> float: """ Compute ranking score for a suggestion. Higher score = more relevant. """ scores = {} # Prefix match quality: longer match = better prefix_quality = suggestion.prefix_match_length / len(suggestion.term) scores['prefix_match'] = prefix_quality # Global popularity (already normalized 0-1) scores['popularity'] = suggestion.global_popularity # Personalization: user history affinity scores['personalization'] = suggestion.user_history_score # Freshness (already normalized 0-1) scores['freshness'] = suggestion.freshness_score # Edit distance penalty (convert to 0-1 where 1 = no edits) max_expected_distance = 3 distance_penalty = max(0, 1 - suggestion.edit_distance / max_expected_distance) scores['edit_distance'] = distance_penalty # Linear combination final_score = sum( self.weights[key] * scores[key] for key in self.weights ) return final_score def rank(self, query: str, suggestions: list[Suggestion], context: RankingContext, limit: int = 10) -> list[Suggestion]: """Rank suggestions by score, return top-k.""" scored = [(s, self.score(query, s, context)) for s in suggestions] scored.sort(key=lambda x: -x[1]) return [s for s, _ in scored[:limit]]Linear combination is not unsophisticated—it's interpretable, fast, and often surprisingly effective. Many production systems use linear models enhanced with careful feature engineering. Non-linear models (ML) improve quality but add complexity and latency.
Popularity is typically the strongest signal for autocomplete. If 1 million users searched for "programming" and 10 searched for "programmable thermostat", the former should usually rank higher for prefix "prog".
Types of Popularity Metrics
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import timefrom collections import defaultdictfrom typing import Dict, List, Tuple class PopularityTracker: """ Track and score term popularity with time decay. """ def __init__(self, decay_half_life_days: float = 7.0): """ decay_half_life_days: After this many days, an event's contribution is halved. """ self.decay_half_life = decay_half_life_days * 24 * 3600 # seconds # Store events as (timestamp, count) pairs self.term_events: Dict[str, List[Tuple[float, int]]] = defaultdict(list) # Pre-computed scores (refreshed periodically) self.cached_scores: Dict[str, float] = {} self.cache_timestamp: float = 0 self.cache_ttl: float = 300 # 5 minutes def record_event(self, term: str, timestamp: float = None, count: int = 1) -> None: """Record a search/selection event for a term.""" ts = timestamp or time.time() self.term_events[term].append((ts, count)) def compute_decayed_score(self, term: str, current_time: float) -> float: """ Compute popularity score with exponential time decay. score = Σ count_i × exp(-λ × age_i) where λ = ln(2) / half_life """ if term not in self.term_events: return 0.0 decay_lambda = math.log(2) / self.decay_half_life score = 0.0 for timestamp, count in self.term_events[term]: age = current_time - timestamp if age < 0: continue # Future event (shouldn't happen) decay_factor = math.exp(-decay_lambda * age) score += count * decay_factor return score def get_popularity_score(self, term: str) -> float: """Get normalized popularity score (0-1 range).""" current_time = time.time() # Refresh cache if stale if current_time - self.cache_timestamp > self.cache_ttl: self._refresh_cache(current_time) return self.cached_scores.get(term, 0.0) def _refresh_cache(self, current_time: float) -> None: """Recompute all popularity scores.""" raw_scores = {} for term in self.term_events: raw_scores[term] = self.compute_decayed_score(term, current_time) if not raw_scores: self.cached_scores = {} return # Normalize to 0-1 using log scale (handles power law distribution) max_score = max(raw_scores.values()) if max_score <= 0: self.cached_scores = {t: 0.0 for t in raw_scores} return self.cached_scores = { term: math.log1p(score) / math.log1p(max_score) for term, score in raw_scores.items() } self.cache_timestamp = current_time class TrendingDetector: """ Detect trending terms by comparing recent vs historical popularity. """ def __init__(self, recent_window_hours: float = 24, baseline_window_days: float = 30): self.recent_window = recent_window_hours * 3600 self.baseline_window = baseline_window_days * 24 * 3600 self.term_events: Dict[str, List[float]] = defaultdict(list) def record_event(self, term: str, timestamp: float = None) -> None: ts = timestamp or time.time() self.term_events[term].append(ts) def get_trend_score(self, term: str) -> float: """ Calculate trending score as ratio of recent to baseline velocity. trend = (recent_rate / baseline_rate) - 1 Positive = trending up Negative = trending down Zero = stable """ if term not in self.term_events: return 0.0 current_time = time.time() events = self.term_events[term] # Count events in recent window recent_cutoff = current_time - self.recent_window recent_count = sum(1 for ts in events if ts >= recent_cutoff) # Count events in baseline window (excluding recent) baseline_start = current_time - self.baseline_window baseline_count = sum( 1 for ts in events if baseline_start <= ts < recent_cutoff ) # Calculate rates recent_rate = recent_count / self.recent_window baseline_days = (self.baseline_window - self.recent_window) / 3600 baseline_rate = baseline_count / baseline_days if baseline_days > 0 else 0 if baseline_rate <= 0: # No baseline - can't measure trend return 1.0 if recent_count > 5 else 0.0 trend = (recent_rate / baseline_rate) - 1 # Normalize to reasonable range return max(-1, min(5, trend))Over-relying on popularity creates a feedback loop: popular items get shown more, get clicked more, become more popular. This hurts diversity and new content discovery. Balance with freshness, exploration, and diversity signals.
Personalization transforms autocomplete from one-size-fits-all to individually tailored. When a developer types "app", they want "application" or "append". When a foodie types "app", they might want "appetizer" or "apple pie recipe".
Personalization Data Sources
| Source | Signals | Privacy Consideration |
|---|---|---|
| Search history | Past queries, clicked results | Medium—PII if linked to identity |
| Browsing history | Pages visited, time on page | High—very revealing |
| Purchase history | Bought items, categories | Medium—transactional data |
| User profile | Age, location, preferences | Medium—explicit collection |
| Session context | Current session queries | Low—short-term, anonymous |
| Device/platform | Mobile vs desktop, OS | Low—technical metadata |
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from collections import Counter, defaultdictfrom typing import Optional, Setimport math class UserProfile: """User profile for personalization.""" def __init__(self, user_id: str): self.user_id = user_id # Historical behavior self.query_history: List[str] = [] self.selected_terms: List[str] = [] # Aggregated interests (category -> score) self.interests: Dict[str, float] = {} # Recent session context self.session_queries: List[str] = [] class PersonalizationEngine: """ Compute personalized relevance scores for suggestions. """ def __init__(self): # Category assignments for terms self.term_categories: Dict[str, Set[str]] = {} # Co-occurrence model: term -> related terms self.term_cooccurrence: Dict[str, Dict[str, float]] = defaultdict(Counter) def register_term_category(self, term: str, categories: Set[str]) -> None: """Associate term with categories for interest matching.""" self.term_categories[term] = categories def record_selection(self, user: UserProfile, query: str, selected_term: str) -> None: """Update user profile based on selection.""" user.query_history.append(query) user.selected_terms.append(selected_term) # Update interest scores based on selected term's categories if selected_term in self.term_categories: for category in self.term_categories[selected_term]: user.interests[category] = user.interests.get(category, 0) + 1.0 # Update co-occurrence model for prev_term in user.selected_terms[-10:]: # Last 10 selections if prev_term != selected_term: self.term_cooccurrence[prev_term][selected_term] += 1 self.term_cooccurrence[selected_term][prev_term] += 1 def personalized_score(self, user: UserProfile, term: str) -> float: """ Compute personalized relevance score for a term. Combines: 1. Direct history match (user searched/selected this before) 2. Interest match (term's categories align with user interests) 3. Co-occurrence (term often follows user's recent selections) """ score = 0.0 # Direct history: has user engaged with this term? direct_count = user.selected_terms.count(term) if direct_count > 0: # Log scale to prevent single-term dominance score += 0.3 * math.log1p(direct_count) # Interest match: does term align with user's interests? if term in self.term_categories and user.interests: term_categories = self.term_categories[term] total_interest = sum(user.interests.values()) interest_score = sum( user.interests.get(cat, 0) / total_interest for cat in term_categories ) score += 0.4 * interest_score # Co-occurrence: does term follow recent activity? if user.selected_terms: recent_terms = user.selected_terms[-5:] # Very recent cooc_score = 0.0 for recent in recent_terms: if recent in self.term_cooccurrence: cooc = self.term_cooccurrence[recent].get(term, 0) total_cooc = sum(self.term_cooccurrence[recent].values()) if total_cooc > 0: cooc_score += cooc / total_cooc score += 0.3 * (cooc_score / len(recent_terms)) return min(1.0, score) # Normalize to 0-1 class SessionContextRanker: """ Use within-session context for anonymous personalization. """ def __init__(self): # Query refinement patterns self.refinement_patterns: Dict[str, str] = {} def session_score(self, session_queries: List[str], term: str) -> float: """ Score term based on session context. Patterns detected: 1. Query refinement: "java" -> "javascript" suggests JS preference 2. Related topics: "python" + "machine learning" suggests ML context 3. Reformulation: helps user who seems stuck """ if not session_queries: return 0.0 score = 0.0 last_query = session_queries[-1].lower() # Refinement detection: is term a refinement of previous query? if term.lower().startswith(last_query): score += 0.5 # Natural progression # Topic coherence: does term share words with session? session_words = set() for q in session_queries: session_words.update(q.lower().split()) term_words = set(term.lower().split()) overlap = len(session_words & term_words) if overlap > 0: score += 0.3 * min(1, overlap / len(term_words)) return min(1.0, score)Session-based personalization is privacy-friendly—no long-term storage or user identification needed. It provides 70-80% of personalization benefit with minimal privacy concerns. Always prefer session context over historical profiles when possible.
Context goes beyond personal history—it captures the user's current situation: where they are, what device they're using, what time it is, and what they were doing moments before.
High-Value Context Signals
| Context Type | Example Impact | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Location | "coffee" → nearby coffee shops vs coffee brands | Geo-filter or geo-boost |
| Time of day | "breakfast" higher in AM, "dinner" in PM | Time-based weights |
| Device type | Shorter suggestions on mobile | Length/complexity filter |
| App/page context | In shopping app → product suggestions | Domain-specific index |
| Previous query | After "python", boost programming terms | Session memory |
| Calendar/events | Near meeting, boost attendee names | Integration APIs |
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import datetimefrom enum import Enumfrom typing import Optional class DeviceType(Enum): DESKTOP = "desktop" MOBILE = "mobile" TABLET = "tablet" @dataclassclass QueryContext: """Rich context for a query.""" query: str timestamp: datetime.datetime # Location latitude: Optional[float] = None longitude: Optional[float] = None city: Optional[str] = None country: Optional[str] = None # Device device_type: DeviceType = DeviceType.DESKTOP screen_width: int = 1920 # Application context app_name: Optional[str] = None page_type: Optional[str] = None # Session session_queries: list[str] = None session_duration_seconds: float = 0 class ContextualRanker: """ Adjust ranking based on query context. """ def __init__(self): # Time-of-day profiles for categories self.time_profiles: Dict[str, Dict[int, float]] = { 'breakfast_food': {h: 2.0 if 6 <= h <= 10 else 0.5 for h in range(24)}, 'lunch_food': {h: 2.0 if 11 <= h <= 14 else 0.5 for h in range(24)}, 'dinner_food': {h: 2.0 if 17 <= h <= 21 else 0.5 for h in range(24)}, 'nightlife': {h: 2.0 if 20 <= h <= 3 else 0.3 for h in range(24)}, } # Location relevance self.geo_sensitive_categories = { 'restaurants', 'stores', 'services', 'places' } # Term -> location data for local results self.term_locations: Dict[str, Tuple[float, float]] = {} def time_adjustment(self, term: str, context: QueryContext) -> float: """ Adjust score based on time of day. Returns multiplier (1.0 = no change). """ hour = context.timestamp.hour # Check if term belongs to time-sensitive category term_categories = self._get_term_categories(term) for category in term_categories: if category in self.time_profiles: return self.time_profiles[category].get(hour, 1.0) return 1.0 def location_adjustment(self, term: str, context: QueryContext) -> float: """ Boost local results when location available. """ if context.latitude is None or context.longitude is None: return 1.0 if term not in self.term_locations: return 1.0 term_lat, term_lon = self.term_locations[term] # Haversine distance (simplified) distance_km = self._haversine_distance( context.latitude, context.longitude, term_lat, term_lon ) # Boost local results (within 10km = 2x, decays with distance) if distance_km < 1: return 3.0 elif distance_km < 5: return 2.0 elif distance_km < 20: return 1.5 elif distance_km < 50: return 1.2 else: return 1.0 def device_adjustment(self, term: str, context: QueryContext) -> float: """ Adjust for device constraints. Mobile: prefer shorter, more common terms. """ if context.device_type == DeviceType.MOBILE: # Penalize long suggestions on mobile if len(term) > 20: return 0.7 elif len(term) > 15: return 0.85 # Boost simple, common terms return 1.0 return 1.0 def get_context_multiplier(self, term: str, context: QueryContext) -> float: """ Combine all context adjustments into single multiplier. """ multiplier = 1.0 multiplier *= self.time_adjustment(term, context) multiplier *= self.location_adjustment(term, context) multiplier *= self.device_adjustment(term, context) return multiplier def _get_term_categories(self, term: str) -> Set[str]: """Get categories for a term (placeholder).""" # In production, use category index or ML classifier return set() def _haversine_distance(self, lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) -> float: """Calculate distance between two points in km.""" from math import radians, sin, cos, sqrt, atan2 R = 6371 # Earth radius in km lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2 = map(radians, [lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2]) dlat = lat2 - lat1 dlon = lon2 - lon1 a = sin(dlat/2)**2 + cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * sin(dlon/2)**2 c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a)) return R * cNot all contexts are equally valuable. Location matters hugely for restaurant search, not at all for software documentation search. Build context-aware systems that know WHEN context matters, not just systems that blindly apply context everywhere.
Learning to Rank (LTR) uses machine learning to automatically learn optimal weights and feature combinations from historical data. Instead of manually tuning weights, we train models on user behavior.
LTR Problem Formulation
Given:
Learn: ranking function f(q, c) that orders candidates by relevance.
| Approach | Optimization | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pointwise | Predict absolute score | Simple implementation | Ignores relative ranking |
| Pairwise | Predict which of pair is better | Captures relative order | Expensive training |
| Listwise | Optimize full list metric | Directly optimizes NDCG | Complex, data hungry |
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import numpy as npfrom typing import List, Tuple class FeatureExtractor: """Extract features for LTR model.""" def extract(self, query: str, suggestion: Suggestion, context: QueryContext) -> np.ndarray: """ Extract feature vector for query-suggestion pair. Returns fixed-size feature vector for ML model input. """ features = [] # Text match features features.append(suggestion.prefix_match_length / len(suggestion.term)) features.append(len(query) / len(suggestion.term)) # Query coverage features.append(suggestion.edit_distance / max(len(query), 1)) features.append(1 if query.lower() == suggestion.term.lower() else 0) # Popularity features features.append(suggestion.global_popularity) features.append(np.log1p(suggestion.global_popularity * 1000)) # Log scale # Personalization features features.append(suggestion.user_history_score) # Freshness features features.append(suggestion.freshness_score) # Context features features.append(1 if context.device_type == DeviceType.MOBILE else 0) features.append(context.timestamp.hour / 24) # Time of day normalized features.append(len(context.session_queries or [])) # Session depth # Length features features.append(len(suggestion.term)) features.append(len(suggestion.term.split())) # Word count return np.array(features, dtype=np.float32) class GradientBoostingRanker: """ LTR using gradient boosting (XGBoost/LightGBM style). In production, use XGBoost or LightGBM with the 'rank:pairwise' or 'lambdarank' objective. This is a simplified illustration. """ def __init__(self, n_trees: int = 100, learning_rate: float = 0.1): self.n_trees = n_trees self.learning_rate = learning_rate self.trees = [] self.feature_extractor = FeatureExtractor() def train(self, training_data: List[Tuple[str, List[Suggestion], QueryContext, List[int]]]): """ Train on labeled data. Each training example: (query, suggestions, context, labels) Labels: relevance grades (0-4) or binary (0/1 clicked) """ # In production: use XGBoost/LightGBM # xgb.train(params={'objective': 'rank:ndcg'}, dtrain=dmatrix) pass def predict(self, query: str, suggestions: List[Suggestion], context: QueryContext) -> List[float]: """Predict relevance scores for suggestions.""" scores = [] for suggestion in suggestions: features = self.feature_extractor.extract(query, suggestion, context) # Sum predictions from all trees score = 0.0 for tree in self.trees: score += self.learning_rate * tree.predict(features) scores.append(score) return scores def rank(self, query: str, suggestions: List[Suggestion], context: QueryContext, limit: int = 10) -> List[Suggestion]: """Rank suggestions using model predictions.""" scores = self.predict(query, suggestions, context) # Sort by score descending ranked = sorted(zip(suggestions, scores), key=lambda x: -x[1]) return [s for s, _ in ranked[:limit]] # Training data example:# [# ("python",# [Suggestion("python programming", ...), Suggestion("python snake", ...)],# context,# [1, 0]) # First was clicked, second wasn't# ] # Key training signals:# - Clicks (implicit positive)# - Skip-over (implicit negative)# - Dwell time after click# - Reformulation (user tried again = negative)Don't jump to deep learning. Linear models and gradient boosting with good features outperform neural networks in many ranking scenarios. Add complexity only when simpler approaches plateau and you have abundant training data.
Cold start occurs when ranking systems lack data: new users (no history), new terms (no popularity data), or new products (no engagement). Handling cold start gracefully is critical for system robustness.
Cold Start Scenarios
| Scenario | Challenge | Mitigation Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| New user | No personalization history | Fall back to demographics, session context, popularity |
| New term | No popularity data | Use category averages, content similarity, editorial boost |
| New session | No context yet | Use trending topics, time-appropriate defaults |
| New market | No localized data | Mirror successful markets, universal signals |
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class ColdStartHandler: """ Handle cold start scenarios with graceful degradation. """ def __init__(self): # Category-level default scores (fallback when term is unknown) self.category_defaults: Dict[str, float] = {} # Trending terms (for new sessions) self.trending_terms: List[str] = [] # Demographic-based defaults self.demographic_interests: Dict[str, Dict[str, float]] = {} def get_user_score(self, user: Optional[UserProfile], term: str) -> Tuple[float, str]: """ Get personalized score with cold start handling. Returns (score, source) for debugging. """ if user is None: # Completely anonymous - use global popularity only return (0.5, 'anonymous_default') if len(user.selected_terms) >= 5: # Warm user - use full personalization engine = PersonalizationEngine() score = engine.personalized_score(user, term) return (score, 'personalized') if len(user.selected_terms) >= 1: # Cool user - limited history # Blend personalization with defaults engine = PersonalizationEngine() personal = engine.personalized_score(user, term) default = self._get_demographic_default(user, term) history_weight = len(user.selected_terms) / 5 score = personal * history_weight + default * (1 - history_weight) return (score, 'partial_personalization') # Cold user - no history # Use demographic defaults if available default = self._get_demographic_default(user, term) return (default, 'demographic_default') def get_term_popularity(self, term: str) -> Tuple[float, str]: """ Get popularity score with cold start handling for new terms. """ popularity_tracker = PopularityTracker() score = popularity_tracker.get_popularity_score(term) if score > 0: return (score, 'tracked_popularity') # Unknown term - try category default categories = self._infer_categories(term) if categories: cat_score = max( self.category_defaults.get(cat, 0.3) for cat in categories ) return (cat_score, 'category_default') # Truly unknown - use content-based heuristics heuristic_score = self._content_heuristic_score(term) return (heuristic_score, 'content_heuristic') def _get_demographic_default(self, user: UserProfile, term: str) -> float: """Get default score based on user demographics.""" # In production, use user attributes like: # - Country/language # - Age group # - Platform (mobile/desktop) # to look up demographic-specific term affinities return 0.5 def _infer_categories(self, term: str) -> Set[str]: """Infer categories from term content.""" # Use keyword matching, ML classifier, or embedding similarity return set() def _content_heuristic_score(self, term: str) -> float: """ Score based on content features for completely unknown terms. """ score = 0.5 # Neutral baseline # Prefer shorter terms (likely more common) if len(term) < 10: score += 0.1 elif len(term) > 20: score -= 0.1 # Prefer single words (simpler concepts) word_count = len(term.split()) if word_count == 1: score += 0.05 elif word_count > 4: score -= 0.05 # Penalize unusual characters alpha_ratio = sum(c.isalpha() for c in term) / len(term) if alpha_ratio < 0.8: score -= 0.1 return max(0.1, min(0.9, score))Cold start is also an opportunity. Occasionally showing cold items gets training data. Use multi-armed bandit strategies (epsilon-greedy, Thompson sampling) to balance showing proven winners with exploring new options.
A ranking that shows 10 variations of the same thing frustrates users. Diversity ensures the result set covers different intents, while deduplication removes redundant suggestions.
Why Diversity Matters
For query "apple":
The second set covers different user intents; the first just repeats one.
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class DiversityReranker: """ Rerank results for diversity using MMR (Maximal Marginal Relevance). """ def __init__(self, lambda_param: float = 0.7): """ lambda_param: trade-off between relevance and diversity - Higher (0.9+): prefer relevance - Lower (0.3-0.5): prefer diversity """ self.lambda_param = lambda_param def similarity(self, term1: str, term2: str) -> float: """ Compute similarity between suggestions. Used to penalize redundancy. """ # Option 1: Jaccard on character n-grams ngrams1 = set(term1[i:i+2] for i in range(len(term1)-1)) ngrams2 = set(term2[i:i+2] for i in range(len(term2)-1)) if not ngrams1 or not ngrams2: return 0.0 intersection = len(ngrams1 & ngrams2) union = len(ngrams1 | ngrams2) return intersection / union def mmr_rerank(self, suggestions: List[Tuple[Suggestion, float]], limit: int = 10) -> List[Suggestion]: """ Maximal Marginal Relevance reranking. MMR = λ × relevance(s) - (1-λ) × max_similarity(s, selected) Iteratively select suggestion that maximizes MMR. """ if not suggestions: return [] selected: List[Suggestion] = [] remaining = list(suggestions) # First item: highest relevance remaining.sort(key=lambda x: -x[1]) selected.append(remaining.pop(0)[0]) while len(selected) < limit and remaining: best_idx = -1 best_mmr = float('-inf') for i, (suggestion, relevance) in enumerate(remaining): # Max similarity to already selected items max_sim = max( self.similarity(suggestion.term, s.term) for s in selected ) # MMR score mmr = (self.lambda_param * relevance - (1 - self.lambda_param) * max_sim) if mmr > best_mmr: best_mmr = mmr best_idx = i selected.append(remaining.pop(best_idx)[0]) return selected class Deduplicator: """ Remove near-duplicate suggestions. """ def __init__(self, threshold: float = 0.85): """ threshold: similarity above which items are considered duplicates """ self.threshold = threshold def deduplicate(self, suggestions: List[Suggestion]) -> List[Suggestion]: """ Remove duplicates, keeping highest-scored version. """ if not suggestions: return [] result: List[Suggestion] = [] for suggestion in suggestions: is_duplicate = False for existing in result: if self._is_duplicate(suggestion.term, existing.term): is_duplicate = True break if not is_duplicate: result.append(suggestion) return result def _is_duplicate(self, term1: str, term2: str) -> bool: """Check if two terms are duplicates.""" # Exact match after normalization norm1 = term1.lower().strip() norm2 = term2.lower().strip() if norm1 == norm2: return True # One is substring of other if norm1 in norm2 or norm2 in norm1: # Check length ratio len_ratio = min(len(norm1), len(norm2)) / max(len(norm1), len(norm2)) if len_ratio > 0.8: return True # High character similarity common = len(set(norm1) & set(norm2)) total = len(set(norm1) | set(norm2)) if common / total > self.threshold: return True return FalseThe best diversity isn't just textual—it's intent-based. Use query intent classification (navigational, informational, transactional) to ensure the result set covers multiple likely intents. This requires understanding what users might MEAN, not just what they typed.
Ranking transforms raw matches into a curated list that serves user needs. The art lies in combining multiple signals into a single ordering that feels natural and helpful.
What's Next: Performance Optimization
Ranking adds latency to every query. The final page explores performance optimization: caching strategies, precomputation, index sharding, and latency budgeting to deliver ranked suggestions in milliseconds.
You now understand the complete ranking stack for autocomplete systems. Combined with previous pages on matching and data structures, you can build autocomplete systems that feel intelligent and responsive. Next, we'll optimize for the speed users demand.