What is F1 score?

Updated May 17, 2026

Short answer

F1 score is harmonic mean of precision and recall.

Deep explanation

It balances precision and recall especially in imbalanced datasets.

Real-world example

Used in fraud detection systems.

Common mistakes

  • Ignoring class imbalance context.

Follow-up questions

  • Why harmonic mean?
  • When avoid F1?

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