Wiktionary
n. (context mathematics English) The problem of finding the ''best'' solution from all feasible solutions, given constraints defining which of the solutions are feasible, and goal function defining which of the feasible solutions is the best one.
Wikipedia
In mathematics and computer science, an optimization problem is the problem of finding the best solution from all feasible solutions. Optimization problems can be divided into two categories depending on whether the variables are continuous or discrete. An optimization problem with discrete variables is known as a combinatorial optimization problem. In a combinatorial optimization problem, we are looking for an object such as an integer, permutation or graph from a finite (or possibly countable infinite) set. Problems with continuous variables include constrained problems and multimodal problems.
Usage examples of "optimization problem".
The ship's metachip-augmented parallel processors solved and optimized the set of equations represented in a thousand-square matrix of subspace points, dropped out of that subspace into Decomposition, rode the collapsing funnel of spaces with a new optimization problem to choose and resolve every tenth of a second.