Practice question · Multiple choice
A model trained on 50 features has coefficients that swing wildly between refits while its predictions stay stable. What does that pattern indicate?
Hints
- If feature B is nearly twice feature A, how many ways are there to split the weight between them?
- Ask why the predictions would be stable if the coefficients are not.
Show the answer
D. Near-dependence among features, so many fits are almost equal
Why
Multicollinearity: many weightings produce nearly the same predictions, so the fit is stable and the coefficients are arbitrary. The distinctive signature is exactly this split — reliable predictions, unreliable interpretation — and it is why regularisation exists to pick one solution from the near-degenerate family.
Practise Linear Independence and Basis
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