Availability of hard problems on Brilliant

A number of people have posted recently about the availability of hard problems on Brilliant. I’d like to share our related planned updates and the philosophy behind them.

Some time ago on Brilliant, when the community was much smaller, members would get approximately 4 new problems each week at their level in each of Algebra, Number Theory, and Combinatorics. Calvin and Arron wrote many of these problems, and also published some of the problems that you submitted to us.

As the weeks passed and the community grew, we found that the majority of members wanted more than 3 subjects, and more than 4 problems per week per subject. We tried experimentally to introduce new subjects like Physics, but could not keep up with the work. The only way for our small team to support that kind of growth was to become moderators of a community that shares its own problems, and eventually appoint community moderators to help out.

We are confident that as the community continues to grow and moderation improves, that both the quantity and quality of problems on Brilliant, as well as the solution discussions, will be better than they ever were when two people on our staff released a handful of problems each week. In the meanwhile, some weeks we have fewer great hard problems, and some weeks we have more. Overall, the number of high-quality hard problems introduced to Brilliant each week is similar to before, but they are distributed somewhat randomly between many more subjects, based on what members choose to submit that week. We expect the number of hard problems to continue to grow over time, as more members become active in the community.

If you miss having small sets of carefully chosen problems, then check out some of the sets that Calvin and Arron have made. They'll release these periodically, and other members are starting to make their own too. Perhaps someone from the community will compile a list of good sets makers soon :)

In addition to moderation improvements, other updates that are happening in the next couple of months that should help ease our way to a better and more endlessly challenging Brilliant are:

We will be releasing the archives of past Brilliant problems, which have been unavailable since we launched the feed and are currently not accessible via search
We will allow members to post problems to any topic, rather than being limited to the few “official” topics on Brilliant
We will continue to make changes to make it easier for you to find the problems you’re most interested in

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Math

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Remember to wrap math in $ ... $ or \[ ... \] to ensure proper formatting.

2 \times 3

2 \times 3

2^{34}

2^{34}

a_{i-1}

a_{i-1}

\frac{2}{3}

\frac{2}{3}

\sqrt{2}

\sqrt{2}

\sum_{i=1}^3

\sum_{i=1}^3

\sin \theta

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\boxed{123}

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Easy Math Editor

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.
Stay on topic — we're all here to learn more about math and science, not to hear about your favorite get-rich-quick scheme or current world events.

Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

I think that I and many other users are wondering especially: who will be chosen as moderators? If I am a possible candidate, consider this my resimee/list of skill sets and abilities:

I am very active on Brilliant.
I follow lots of people, so I see almost every problem published.
I am fully fluent in $\LaTeX$ .
I am the creator of (right now) 55 problems.
I have good phrasing/diction, and I have good grammar.
I check my email very often.
I'm trustworthy.
I can offer very good criticism (seriously, ask Silas).
I'm OCD, so I strive to perfect everything that I work on.
I think that I get along well with other people on this site.
I have obnoxiously low levels, so I wouldn't mind giving them up to make Brilliant a better experience for other users. :D

I know that self-advertising is usually advised against on discussions that are unrelated to advertisement, but consider this an application. I know that lots of people will be able to support my claims in the comments. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

You would make a good moderator if your claims are true, which I don't doubt. But do you really want to be a moderator? Most of your time would be spent in checking or correcting questions and you would not be able to spend more time solving problems

Ashtik Mahapatra - 7 years, 2 months ago

Yes, I really do! I'd want exactly that! My ratings aren't impressive, I wouldn't be sad if I had to drop them to become a moderator! I'd be very happy to! :D

@Finn Hulse – @Finn Hulse From what I know of you, you would be just another Brilliant moderator! I hope you get selected $\dots$ :D

Ameya Salankar - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Ameya Salankar – Thanks! :D

@Finn Hulse – Don't you go to school? Being moderator would mean dedicating most of your time to Brilliant!

Shreya R - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Shreya R – I do, but I don't have any afterschool activities or things I need to do.

Now to think about it... Maybe I shouldn't try to be moderator. It's all nice and the such, but I'd rather be creating my own problems and doing other people's problems than constantly checking for LaTeX errors, or searching for good problems in the sea of mediocre problems. I find creating my own problems much more enjoyable than sharing other people's problems.

Daniel Liu - 7 years, 2 months ago

Eh, I have no life, so either one works for me, although there isn't a better feeling in the world than sharing a good problem. :D

I agree. :P

Vishnuram Leonardodavinci - 7 years, 2 months ago

also agreed

Beakal Tiliksew - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Beakal Tiliksew – Ditto

dada haha - 7 years, 1 month ago

@Beakal Tiliksew – :D

Thanks!

I also qualify for many of these...pick me!! pick me!! waves

Seriously you're a good choice.....

Eddie The Head - 7 years, 2 months ago

I believe that me and Finn both have a combined goal.

Sharky Kesa - 7 years, 2 months ago

Fist bump... :D

@Suyeon Khim?

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

@Suyeon Khim Just a side note...congrats to Brilliant team for 1 million likes on facebook!!!

Aabhas Mathur - 7 years, 2 months ago

in the practise part......can we practice physics too....i mean that facility should be there...(just a suggestion)

Max B - 7 years, 2 months ago

The "practice" part of brilliant has only algebra. I guess it would be great(for beginners like me) if other topics like mechanics, geometry and NUMBER THEORY could also be covered.

milind prabhu - 7 years, 2 months ago

Instead of writing and creating problems, I like @Daniel Hirschberg idea on the 1998 AHSME Problem set. I think we can use the problems of many mathematics contests as our problem source. Although I do know the AoPS, but sometimes it will be inconvenient for me to download the pdf files and solve the problems. I never remember which problem I have solved and which problem I can't solve and I know this is absolutely my own problem but if brilliant.org have these problem sets I can know which problem I have solved and which I don't. I can also write solutions so I can always revise how I tackle the problem. The only problem I'm afraid of is do this against their rights?

Other than popular competitions such as AMC and AIME, we can also provide our national olympiad math problems. I am from Malaysia so I can share my National Mathematics Olympiad problems here. I know there are many brilliantics from around the world so with this, we can enjoy many hard problems!

Moreover, these contests problem sets can be official sets, so we can just have a section of "contests problem sets". I think this is a good idea as user who wants to practice can just come here and they can even do their timing! However, I know this would be a tough job for the staffs to collect many contests problems in a short period of time so if this project is possible, I will certainly be the first to help writing contests problems and I believe many other brilliantics will like to lend a helping hand too!

Christopher Boo - 7 years, 2 months ago

Your suggestion is really great @Christopher Boo, I will try to make a set from the Indian National Olympiads.

Glad you like my idea! I can't wait for an Indian National Olympiad problem sets!

@Christopher Boo – I will also create an INMO set.

Soham Dibyachintan - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Christopher Boo – hey there I am Salman Zafar I am new here can you just help me out ? I will be verrrrrrrry thankful

Salman Zafar - 7 years ago

Hi, You can see here for a list of USA competition problems. You can click on the little number of each problem to view a AoPS forum thread on which users would have posted solutions.

If you are interested in other countries' problems, see here.

Hope this helps.

Yes I know that AoPS has many contests problem. I just think it will be better if the problems can be here in brilliant.org so we can like the problem if it amazed you and we can even know our own progression on solving the problems. However, the solution is already there, so I suggest that problems on official sets may not have any ratings. There are also contests which is not on the list, such as JOMO for level 1&2 which can be on brilliant.

By the way, thanks for the links. :)

I have some past year OMK problems :) ( OMK is Malaysia's national math olympiad)

Tan Li Xuan - 7 years, 2 months ago

Instead of 4 problems per week, can we make it 10 per week or something then? Let users submit the problems but they should be posted only after challenge masters revise them. What do you think about this?

Snehal Shekatkar - 7 years, 2 months ago

I am thinking of returning to the Brilliant after a long time. However, now everything looks so much changed! Where can I find the problems posted by community about a specific topic (say "classical mechanics")? Thank you

Snehal Shekatkar - 5 years, 1 month ago

So nice to see you around @Snehal Shekatkar! This is probably what you're looking for -- https://brilliant.org/community/level-3-to-5/mechanics-2/?new=true

Silas Hundt Staff - 5 years, 1 month ago

Thanks @Silas Hundt. However, where is this link located on my homepage? Or how to "navigate" to this link starting from my homepage?

@Snehal Shekatkar – Featured > Select "New".

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$