What is a Random Forest?

Updated May 17, 2026

Short answer

Random Forest is an ensemble learning method that builds multiple decision trees and combines their outputs for better accuracy and stability.

Deep explanation

Random Forest works by training many decision trees on different random subsets of data and features. The final prediction is made by averaging (regression) or majority voting (classification). This reduces overfitting compared to a single decision tree.

Real-world example

Used in fraud detection systems to classify transactions as legitimate or fraudulent.

Common mistakes

  • Assuming Random Forest is a single tree model.

Follow-up questions

  • Why are multiple trees better than one?
  • Is Random Forest deterministic?

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