Holdout
Also called Holdout Set
Any chunk of data you deliberately set aside and keep the model from seeing, so you can test it fairly.
Think of it like
Hiding a few puzzle pieces so you can check later whether someone actually solved it or just memorized the picture.
Example
Before training, the team carves off 10% of records as a holdout and does not look at it again until the end.
How it actually works
Holdout is the general idea behind validation and test splits: withhold data so evaluation reflects performance on examples the model never learned. Simple holdout uses one fixed slice; when data is scarce, cross-validation rotates the holdout across the whole set to use every example both ways.
For product teams
The basic discipline that keeps a demo honest — no holdout, no trustworthy number.
For engineers
Data withheld from training for unbiased evaluation; the fixed-split alternative to cross-validation.
Related
- Validation set — A holdout used during development.
- Cross-validation — Rotates the holdout to use all the data.
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