Methods and apparatuses described herein provide a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidate hopping function that reduces collisions between PDCCH candidates, particularly between PDCCH candidates associated with reduced capability user equipment (UE). For example, the hopping function may be implemented as part of a PDCCH candidate to control channel element (CCE) function or may be applied separately from the PDCCH candidate to CCE function. The hopping function may reduce persistent collisions between PDCCH candidates by correlating the mapping behavior with a value that changes over time. Some techniques and apparatuses described herein provide signaling for configuration and activation/deactivation/modification of the hopping pattern. Thus, collisions between PDCCH candidates are reduced, thereby conserving computing resources and wireless communication resources. Furthermore, the reduction of collisions may improve performance of UEs with reduced PDCCH capabilities, such as reduced-capability UEs. Numerous other aspects are provided.