Operations may include identifying variables corresponding to an optimization problem, each variable having an initial value. The operations may include calculating an objective function value based on the initial value of each variable and a plurality of function value changes. Each function value change may be calculated based on a different variable value change, each variable value change corresponding to a respective change made to a different one of the variables. The operations may include selecting a subset of the variables based on the respective function value changes and corresponding variable value changes made to the respective initial values of the variables of the subset and generating a surrogate quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) model using the subset. The operations may include determining a solution to the optimization problem including a set of solution values using the surrogate QUBO model, each of the solution values corresponding to a different variable.