Error correcting codes encode messages by codewords in such a way that even if some of the codeword is corrupted, the message can be decoded. Typical decoding algorithms for error correcting codes either use linear space or quadratic time. A natural question is whether codes can be decoded in near-linear time and sub-linear space simultaneously. A recent result by Cook and Moshkovitz gave efficient decoders that can uniquely decode Reed-Muller and other codes from a constant fraction (less than half) of corruption.

In this work, we address the problem of list decoding in near-linear time and sub-linear space. In the list decoding setting, most of the codeword is corrupted, and one wants to output a short list of potential messages that contains the true message. For any constants gamma, tau > 0, we give decoders for Reed-Muller codes that can decode from 1-gamma fraction of corruptions in time n^{1+tau} and space n^tau.

Our decoders work by extending the iterative correction technique of Cook and Moshkovitz. However, that technique, which gradually decreases the number of corruptions in the message, was tailored to the unique decoding setting. We first identify an intermediate problem, codewords list recovery, for which we can make iterative correction work. We then show how to reduce general list decoding to the codewords list recovery problem in efficient time and space. The reduction relies on local correction and testing.
In the codewords list recovery problem, the input consists of n unordered lists of symbols from L codewords, where a small fraction of the lists is corrupted. The goal is to find the n unordered lists of symbols that are exactly the symbols from the L codewords.

In addition, we prove that any linear code with time-space efficient encoding or decoding must be local, in the sense that the codewords satisfy a local linear constraint. This rules out codes like Reed-Solomon from having time-space efficient encoding or decoding.