PathFinder: MCTS and LLM Feedback-based Path Selection for Multi-Hop Question Answering

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05336v1
• Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:33:31 GMT
• Title: PathFinder: MCTS and LLM Feedback-based Path Selection for Multi-Hop Question Answering
• Authors: Durga Prasad Maram, Kalpa Gunaratna, Vijay Srinivasan, Haris Jeelani, Srinivas Chappidi,
• Abstract summary: Multi-hop question answering is a challenging task in which language models must reason over multiple steps to reach the correct answer.<n>We propose PATHFINDER, an approach that: (i) uses Monte Carlo Tree Search to generate training path traces, (ii) improves training data quality by filtering erroneous and lengthy traces, and (iii) reformulates sub-queries to handle failed retrieval cases.
• Score: 7.982446458726334
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Multi-hop question answering is a challenging task in which language models must reason over multiple steps to reach the correct answer. With the help of Large Language Models and their reasoning capabilities, existing systems are able to think and decompose an input question over multiple steps to analyze, retrieve, and reason. However, training-based approaches for this problem still suffer from LLM hallucinations and incorrect reasoning paths that hinder performance. Hence, we propose PATHFINDER, an approach that: (i) uses Monte Carlo Tree Search to generate training path traces, (ii) improves training data quality by filtering erroneous and lengthy traces using sub-answer recall and LLM-as-a-judge verification, and (iii) reformulates sub-queries to handle failed retrieval cases. By following these steps, we demonstrate that PATHFINDER improves the performance of multi-hop QA over public benchmark datasets.

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