midSVM
What is the difference between primal and dual SVM?
Updated May 17, 2026
Short answer
Primal works in original feature space, dual uses Lagrange multipliers and kernels.
Deep explanation
Primal formulation directly optimizes weights, while dual reformulates problem using dot products enabling kernel methods.
Real-world example
NLP uses dual due to high dimensionality.
Common mistakes
- Confusing both as separate algorithms.
Follow-up questions
- Why dual for kernels?
- When is primal better?