While at least one candidate solution of a first generation of candidate solutions remains to be evaluated in accordance with a fitness function for an optimization problem, a plurality of candidate solutions is selected from the first generation of candidate solutions to participate in a tournament. It is determined whether each of the plurality of candidate solutions selected to participate in the tournament have been evaluated in accordance with the fitness function. If all have been evaluated, then one or more winners of the tournament are selected from the plurality of candidate solutions of the first generation of candidate solutions. A candidate solution of a second generation of candidate solutions is created with the selected one or more winners of the tournament in accordance with a genetic operator.