seniorGradient Descent
What is curvature conditioning in Gradient Descent?
Updated May 16, 2026
Short answer
Curvature conditioning measures how well-scaled the optimization problem is.
Deep explanation
A well-conditioned problem has similar curvature in all directions, enabling fast convergence. Poor conditioning causes zig-zagging in Gradient Descent. Conditioning is measured using Hessian eigenvalue ratios.
Real-world example
Training deep networks with poorly scaled features.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring feature scaling before training.
Follow-up questions
- What is condition number?
- How to improve conditioning?