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arXiv · 2509.04654

A 13/6-Approximation for Strip Packing via the Bottom-Left Algorithm

Stefan Hougardy·Bart Zondervan
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Abstract

In the Strip Packing problem, we are given a vertical strip of fixed width and unbounded height, along with a set of axis-parallel rectangles. The task is to place all rectangles within the strip, without overlaps, while minimizing the height of the packing. This problem is known to be NP-hard. The Bottom-Left Algorithm is a simple and widely used heuristic for Strip Packing. Given a fixed order of the rectangles, it places them one by one, always choosing the lowest feasible position in the strip and, in case of ties, the leftmost one. Baker, Coffman, and Rivest proved in 1980 that the Bottom-Left Algorithm has approximation ratio 3 if the rectangles are sorted by decreasing width. For the past 45 years, no alternative ordering has been found that improves this bound. We introduce a new rectangle ordering and show that with this ordering the Bottom-Left Algorithm achieves a 13/6 approximation for the Strip Packing problem.

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Stefan Hougardy, Bart Zondervan. 2025-09-04. A 13/6-Approximation for Strip Packing via the Bottom-Left Algorithm. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04654

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