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模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法

学习者将在流程中训练逻辑回归、随机森林、XGBoost、SVM 和神经网络，使用嵌套 CV，并在共享测试集上制发表格比较性能。

模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法 是 CoddyKit 上的免费 Machine Learning Academy 课时。 这是第 3 节课，共 4 节。 你可以在下方免费阅读本课时的完整内容 — 然后在浏览器中使用内置代码编辑器和全天候 AI 导师进行实践。 这是 Machine Learning Academy 学习路径的一部分，你的进度在网页和 CoddyKit 应用中同步。 Machine Learning Academy 课程共包含 4 节课。

本课时的部分内容尚未翻译，以英文显示。

Why Compare Multiple Algorithms?

No single algorithm dominates every dataset. The No Free Lunch theorem proves that averaged over all possible problems, every algorithm performs equally well — meaning you must empirically compare algorithms on your specific data. A model selection tournament systematically trains and evaluates several diverse algorithms under identical conditions, revealing which one best fits the data's structure. The winner earns the right to hyperparameter tuning and deployment consideration.

Setting Up the Shared Pipeline Scaffold

Fair comparison requires that every algorithm starts from the same preprocessed feature matrix and is evaluated on the same held-out test set. Wrap each algorithm in a Pipeline that includes preprocessing, so preprocessing is fitted only on training folds. Use a fixed random_state everywhere for reproducibility. Keep the test set locked away — do not look at it until the final single evaluation of the tournament winner.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
from sklearn.pipeline import Pipeline
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer
from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_val_score

# Load preprocessed data
X, y = load_features()  # returns numpy arrays after EDA cleaning

X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(
    X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=42, stratify=y
)

print(f'Training set: {X_train.shape[0]} samples')
print(f'Test set (LOCKED): {X_test.shape[0]} samples')
print(f'Positive class rate (train): {y_train.mean():.3f}')

Competitor 1: Logistic Regression

Logistic regression is the essential linear baseline. It is interpretable (coefficients show feature effects), fast to train, and works well when the decision boundary is approximately linear. In the tournament it serves as the floor — if tree-based models cannot outperform it significantly, the dataset may lack complex nonlinear patterns worth capturing with more complex models. Use class_weight='balanced' for imbalanced datasets.

from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
from sklearn.pipeline import Pipeline
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler

lr_pipe = Pipeline([
    ('scaler', StandardScaler()),
    ('clf', LogisticRegression(
        C=1.0,
        class_weight='balanced',
        max_iter=1000,
        random_state=42
    ))
])

cv_scores = cross_val_score(lr_pipe, X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring='roc_auc')
print(f'Logistic Regression — AUC: {cv_scores.mean():.4f} +/- {cv_scores.std():.4f}')

Competitor 2: Random Forest

Random Forest handles nonlinear relationships, feature interactions, and mixed data types naturally, with no need for feature scaling. It produces reliable feature importance scores and is robust to outliers. In competitions it is often the second-best algorithm after gradient boosting and a strong baseline for tabular data. Set n_estimators=200 and class_weight='balanced' for a solid default configuration.

from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier

rf_pipe = Pipeline([
    ('clf', RandomForestClassifier(
        n_estimators=200,
        max_depth=10,
        class_weight='balanced',
        random_state=42,
        n_jobs=-1
    ))
])

cv_scores = cross_val_score(rf_pipe, X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring='roc_auc')
print(f'Random Forest — AUC: {cv_scores.mean():.4f} +/- {cv_scores.std():.4f}')

Competitor 3: XGBoost

XGBoost is the most commonly cited winner in tabular ML competitions. Its sequential boosting corrects residual errors at each step, producing strong performance on structured data. Key defaults for a tournament run: n_estimators=300, learning_rate=0.05, max_depth=6, and scale_pos_weight set to the negative-to-positive class ratio to handle imbalance. Pass eval_set for optional early stopping.

from xgboost import XGBClassifier
import numpy as np

# Compute class imbalance ratio
neg_count = (y_train == 0).sum()
pos_count = (y_train == 1).sum()

xgb_pipe = Pipeline([
    ('clf', XGBClassifier(
        n_estimators=300,
        learning_rate=0.05,
        max_depth=6,
        scale_pos_weight=neg_count / pos_count,
        use_label_encoder=False,
        eval_metric='logloss',
        random_state=42,
        n_jobs=-1
    ))
])

cv_scores = cross_val_score(xgb_pipe, X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring='roc_auc')
print(f'XGBoost — AUC: {cv_scores.mean():.4f} +/- {cv_scores.std():.4f}')

Competitor 4: Support Vector Machine

SVM with an RBF kernel excels on datasets with clearly separated classes and few irrelevant features. It is memory-intensive (stores support vectors) and slow on large datasets (O(n²) to O(n³) training time), but can outperform tree models on smaller datasets with complex boundaries. Standardise features before training — SVMs are highly sensitive to feature scale. Use probability=True to get calibrated probability outputs for AUC evaluation.

from sklearn.svm import SVC
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler

svm_pipe = Pipeline([
    ('scaler', StandardScaler()),
    ('clf', SVC(
        C=1.0,
        kernel='rbf',
        gamma='scale',
        class_weight='balanced',
        probability=True,
        random_state=42
    ))
])

cv_scores = cross_val_score(svm_pipe, X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring='roc_auc')
print(f'SVM (RBF) — AUC: {cv_scores.mean():.4f} +/- {cv_scores.std():.4f}')

Competitor 5: Neural Network

A simple multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with 2-3 hidden layers can capture complex nonlinear patterns, but requires careful scaling, regularisation, and is slower to train than tree-based models on tabular data. Use it when the other four algorithms all plateau at the same performance level, suggesting the decision boundary requires higher-capacity modelling. sklearn.neural_network.MLPClassifier is convenient for the tournament without a full PyTorch setup.

from sklearn.neural_network import MLPClassifier
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler

mlp_pipe = Pipeline([
    ('scaler', StandardScaler()),
    ('clf', MLPClassifier(
        hidden_layer_sizes=(128, 64),
        activation='relu',
        alpha=0.01,      # L2 regularisation
        max_iter=300,
        early_stopping=True,
        validation_fraction=0.1,
        random_state=42
    ))
])

cv_scores = cross_val_score(mlp_pipe, X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring='roc_auc')
print(f'MLP Neural Network — AUC: {cv_scores.mean():.4f} +/- {cv_scores.std():.4f}')

Consolidating Results into a Leaderboard

Collect all 5-fold CV AUC scores into a table ranked by mean AUC. Also record the standard deviation — a model with slightly lower mean AUC but much lower variance may be preferable for deployment because its performance is more predictable across different data partitions. Display the results as a horizontal bar chart for stakeholder communication.

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

results = {
    'Logistic Regression': (0.821, 0.013),
    'Random Forest':       (0.867, 0.009),
    'XGBoost':             (0.883, 0.007),
    'SVM (RBF)':           (0.845, 0.011),
    'MLP Neural Network':  (0.858, 0.010)
}

df_results = pd.DataFrame(results, index=['AUC_mean', 'AUC_std']).T
df_results = df_results.sort_values('AUC_mean', ascending=False)
print(df_results.to_string())

df_results['AUC_mean'].plot(kind='barh', xerr=df_results['AUC_std'], figsize=(8, 4))
plt.xlabel('5-fold CV AUC')
plt.title('Model Selection Tournament Results')
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('tournament.png', dpi=150)

Statistical Significance of Differences

A 0.002 AUC difference between two models may just be noise from random data partitioning. Use a paired t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test on the fold-level scores to determine whether the difference is statistically significant. If the p-value exceeds 0.05, choose the simpler model — its lower complexity makes it easier to debug, explain, and maintain in production.

from scipy import stats
import numpy as np

# Simulated per-fold scores for XGBoost vs Random Forest
xgb_folds = np.array([0.889, 0.881, 0.875, 0.883, 0.887])
rf_folds  = np.array([0.871, 0.863, 0.869, 0.865, 0.867])

# Paired t-test
t_stat, p_value = stats.ttest_rel(xgb_folds, rf_folds)
print(f'XGBoost mean: {xgb_folds.mean():.4f}')
print(f'Random Forest mean: {rf_folds.mean():.4f}')
print(f'Paired t-test: t={t_stat:.3f}, p={p_value:.4f}')
if p_value < 0.05:
    print('Difference is statistically significant — prefer XGBoost.')
else:
    print('Difference is NOT significant — prefer simpler model (Random Forest).')

One-Time Test Set Evaluation

After selecting the tournament winner, evaluate it exactly once on the held-out test set. This is the unbiased performance estimate you will report in the model card. Never tune hyperparameters after seeing test set results — doing so constitutes data leakage through the evaluation process. If the test AUC is substantially lower than CV AUC (more than 2–3 standard deviations), investigate for overfitting or distribution shift between train and test splits.

from sklearn.metrics import roc_auc_score, classification_report

# Fit winner on full training set
best_pipeline = xgb_pipe
best_pipeline.fit(X_train, y_train)

# One-time test evaluation
y_proba = best_pipeline.predict_proba(X_test)[:, 1]
y_pred  = best_pipeline.predict(X_test)

test_auc = roc_auc_score(y_test, y_proba)
print(f'Test AUC: {test_auc:.4f}')
print('\nClassification report:')
print(classification_report(y_test, y_pred, target_names=['retained', 'churned']))

Choosing the Winner: Beyond AUC

AUC is not the only criterion. Consider: interpretability (logistic regression may be mandatory for regulatory compliance), training time (if weekly retraining on 10M rows, XGBoost's speed advantage matters), memory footprint (an SVM storing 100k support vectors may exceed the deployment budget), and fairness (the highest-AUC model may have worse demographic parity). The tournament selects the candidate; deployment readiness is a separate, multi-criteria decision.

# Multi-criteria scoring table
criteria = {
    'AUC': {'XGBoost': 5, 'RandomForest': 4, 'LogReg': 2, 'SVM': 3, 'MLP': 4},
    'Interpretability': {'XGBoost': 3, 'RandomForest': 3, 'LogReg': 5, 'SVM': 2, 'MLP': 1},
    'Training speed': {'XGBoost': 4, 'RandomForest': 4, 'LogReg': 5, 'SVM': 2, 'MLP': 3},
    'Memory': {'XGBoost': 4, 'RandomForest': 3, 'LogReg': 5, 'SVM': 2, 'MLP': 3}
}
import pandas as pd
df_crit = pd.DataFrame(criteria).T
df_crit.loc['Total'] = df_crit.sum()
print(df_crit)

Quick Check

Test your understanding of Machine Learning with Python concepts from this lesson.

Lesson Recap

In this lesson you learned: every algorithm should be wrapped in a Pipeline and evaluated with identical CV folds on the same training set, the tournament leaderboard ranks models by mean CV AUC with a paired significance test to distinguish real from noise differences, and the test set is used exactly once on the winning model to produce the honest performance estimate for the model card. Next up we package, document, and present the final model for deployment.

常见问题解答

「模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法」课时是免费的吗？

是的 — 「模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法」的完整文本可在网页上免费阅读。要进行交互式练习（内置代码编辑器和全天候 AI 导师）并解锁 Machine Learning Academy 课程的其余内容，请升级到 CoddyKit PRO。 Machine Learning Academy 课程共包含 4 节课。

「模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法」这节课中我会学到什么？

学习者将在流程中训练逻辑回归、随机森林、XGBoost、SVM 和神经网络，使用嵌套 CV，并在共享测试集上制发表格比较性能。 你通过在浏览器中直接运行的动手代码来练习 Machine Learning Academy，全天候 AI 导师会在你学习这节课的过程中回答你的问题。

学习 Machine Learning Academy 需要有经验吗？

无需任何先前经验。CoddyKit 上的 Machine Learning Academy 课程适合初学者到高级学习者，你可以从这里开始或从头开始，按照自己的节奏学习。 这是第 3 节课，共 4 节。

「模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法」课时需要多长时间？

大多数 CoddyKit 课程大约需要 5–10 分钟。每节课都很精短且互动，所以你能稳步进步，并在网页和应用中从离开的地方继续。

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能。每节 Machine Learning Academy 课都包含内置代码编辑器，你可以在浏览器中直接编写并运行真实代码，并获得即时 AI 反馈 — 无需本地设置。

此课程中的所有课时

  1. 项目范围界定：定义问题与成功标准
  2. 数据整理与探索性数据分析
  3. 模型选择竞赛：比较五种算法
  4. 打包、记录与展示最终模型
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