Feedback on Problems of the Day

As you may have noticed, we updated the homepage 3 weeks back, and presented you with "Problems of the Day". We haven't heard any protests, uprisings or defections from the community, so we hope that you have liked it thus far.

I would like to obtain more information about how you use this feature, so that we can improve it:

Do you like seeing the Problems of the Day?
How often do you work on the problem?
How often do you "Skip this problem"? If you do so, why?
Do you want more Problems of the Day?
What do you think of the selection so far? Do you want to be able to tweak what you see?
Any other feedback?

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

It is really a good feature , But in my opinion there should be" problem of the day by topic wise " . Like , we should add 6 problem's one of each section : Physics, Algebra , Geometry , Calculus , Combinatorics, Number theory , . If Possible...
PS: It is just an suggestion.

Deepanshu Gupta - 5 years, 11 months ago

So far it is a pretty neat feature. Adding three new problems every day is fine, but I'd like to see the queue of unsolved problems get extended from 3 to maybe 6 (2 days' worth).

Daniel Liu - 5 years, 11 months ago

Thanks. We felt that 3 problems were sufficient to work through on the homepage (and to delve deeper you would have to explore the community page).

Please vote up/down on this comment if you want more/less problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 11 months ago

I think I liked the way it was before, where "recommended problems" were offered, and I could pick and choose which ones I'd like to jump on, and I had ample time to decide when to. Now, I only see one, and if I skip it to see others, I can't get back to it.

I understand that Brilliant.org emphasizes training, drilling and learning, because the primary target user are young people still in school worried about tests and competitions. I am not suggesting that Brilliant should change its philosophy, but this is not what I'm interested in doing--drilling and learning subjects that are taught in secondary school or undergraduate college. I'm in Brilliant mainly for interesting conversation and the chance to fool around with problems to scratch my brains with.

To answer the questions:

1) Sometimes
2) On some days I do
3) On some days I do, mainly because I don't have the time to solve all the problems sequentially
4) It seems pointless to have more "problems of the day" if I must skip or solve problems to get to them
5) I perceive that the selection is limited, in the same way Google limits the kinds of advertisements I see
6) It depends on which hat I'm wearing---the hat that I use to decide what's best for Brilliant.org, or decide what is it that I like best for myself

Michael Mendrin - 5 years, 11 months ago

I prefer the way it was before as well, and that format can still be found on the mobile site homepage, (at least for the time being). However, as you allude to in item 6), the new "full site" homepage is probably what is best for Brilliant.org, if not for myself. I use the Community page as my "portal" almost exclusively now.

Brian Charlesworth - 5 years, 11 months ago

Yeah, I go straight for the Community page now, and click through the problems to see which intrigues me.

Michael Mendrin - 5 years, 11 months ago

"Protests," huh? That must be a reference to... me. ^.^

Problems of the day are quite neat. Though I'm not exactly sure how they are chosen, or, determined, I have a suggestion. There should be a "Problem of the Day" by the topic. Or at least an option to choose such a problem. So, there will just the general pick, and then the one by the topic. Just a thought.

And I see the protest didn't really work. That white bar is still stalking me over 20% of the screen. Meh...

John M. - 5 years, 11 months ago

To clarify, you want a "Algebra Problem of the Day", or the ability to specify "Pick my problems from the following topics"? If a lot of people want to be able to do this fine-tuning, then we can certainly add that functionality.

Please vote up this comment if you want to be able to specify the topics that the problem appears in.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 11 months ago

With no offense, I almost always skip the problems. I don't know if it's my intrinsic human nature, but I prefer to go about through the topics and look for problems that catch my eye. Although I'm subscribed to mostly all the topics, I mostly stick to calculus, so I guess my only feedback would be to present problems on topics the user mostly works on.

But that's mostly my stubborn self not looking on to other topics.

All in all, I'd say it's a wonderful addition to the website!

P.S. I'm not exactly sure whether the problems of the day are the same for everyone, or dependent on your levels\topics.

Hussein Hijazi - 5 years, 11 months ago

Thanks for the feedback. The problems are dependent on your levels / topics / activity.

We understand that here are some people who would prefer a more structured framework, hence the question about "being able to tweak what you can see". It is meant to give you a quick taste of the best that Brilliant has to offer, which of course isn't a substitute for going through the topic problems in depth.

Please vote up this comment if you think that the problems of the day should be chosen mostly from the topics of the (say) past 10-30 problems that you worked on.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 11 months ago

Hell yeah!
I work on those problems everyday I log in to Brilliant. I first work on those problems, then head to the community after I'm done with those problems for the day.
Quite rare, but yeah, I do sometimes skip the problems. Mostly when the problem is too complicating for me. To be precise, when I get the "Whoa, I shat my pants on seeing that problem" feeling.
Again, hell yeah!
The selection of the problems is good. And well, if the tweaking facility does come, I wouldn't mind. Although, I mostly get NT and Algebra problems in the "Problems of the Day" which is why I have no complaints as I love to work on exactly those kind of problems.
None that I can think of right now. Would let you know if something comes to mind later.

Prasun Biswas - 5 years, 11 months ago

Well this beautiful feature works only on pc if you add this feature on android's brilliant app it will be really nice

Arsan Safeen - 5 years, 11 months ago

It's there! Upgrade the android app to v2.0 (or higher)

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 11 months ago

Yes, I love seeing the Problems of the Day
I work on the problems everyday
Most of the times I answer all the problems, but sometimes I skip questions on topics that I'm not working on. Otherwise, I skip questions when I don't know the answer to the problem, because I am aware that getting PoD questions wrong will decrease my rating by quite a lot of points.
Yes please! I always end up visiting Brilliant.org at midnight because I can't wait for the questions to come out, which means I have another whole day long to wait for them.
I'm loving the selections so far. However, I'd like to see more questions on the topics I'm working on (maybe being able to personalise the Problem of the Day so that you can select 'topics' may work.) Especially because I love number theory questions, I don't like to see Algebra questions three times in a row for my PoD's.
Personally, I think that increasing the amount of points/rating you get from the Problem of the Day questions will encourage more people to visit Brilliant.org more often (because there are limited number of these each day). Also it is a good deal of fun.

Thanks

Tasha Kim - 5 years, 11 months ago

I love the new feature. Old problems are coming up again, and I love them.
Occasionally. To be honest, many times I forget to visit the home page. I find the Community tab to be much more active than the home page. (and when new feeds seem to have stopped coming even to the Community tab, I go to the Firehose.)
I skipped problems only on the first day to test it. Then I realised that I won't get to see the problem again till the next day (unless I like / reshare / save to set).
More would be great, but three are also fine.
So far I have mostly encountered Algebra problems, few Number Theory problems, and one Mechanics problem, and they are amazing!
I feel the interface should be more like that of the practice problems, where we can see all questions at once and solve them in any order. The GIF's are great.

Pranshu Gaba - 5 years, 11 months ago

I accidentally skipped a problem, how can I find it again?

Jorge Fernández - 5 years, 10 months ago

If you remember the problem statement, you can search for it.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 10 months ago

Hey, It would be nice if a separate section is created with the name " Problems of the Day" so that the problems from the past days can be visible there. In case if we cant find time some day to check out the problem of the day, we can atleast come back next day and give it a shot

Subrata Karmakar - 5 years, 8 months ago

Your problems of the day are only generated when you view them, so there is no record for days that you did not go through the problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

As some people have already mentioned, it would be nice to be able to choose a topic. I did a few algebra problems in a row recently and now I'm ONLY getting algebra problems.

Also, when I skipped a problem, I thought I was going to get another problem to replace it instead of 'losing an attempt' for the day. Is this by design? It might be better to simply provide another problem.

Otherwise, I like the feature a lot and it's got me more active on this website again.

Zarak K - 5 years, 7 months ago

Why do I always get a algebra problem every day? I'm interested in a lot of topics.

林晓耿 - 5 years, 6 months ago

The recommendations are based on the problems that you worked on. Those who work on a variety of topics will see a larger variety of problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 6 months ago

So that means, if I get a algebra problem today, and I want to work on geometry, I should I skip this one to expect another one?

林晓耿 - 5 years, 6 months ago

@林晓耿 – If you want to work on geometry, you can do so directly by going to Community, and changing the topic filter to Geometry. You can also select the difficulty of the problems that you want.

Once we see that you've been recently working on another topic, we will assign that topic in the Problems of the day. Of course, if you work on 100 Algebra problems and 1 geometry problem, then you are likely to still only get 3 Algebra problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 6 months ago

I’m not sure if this has been asked before, I can’t seem to find anything on this...

We should be able to save our favorite problems. Maybe we want to show someone later, maybe we want to revisit them at a later time...there should be a favorites section, or a starred section. Anything that would allow us to bookmark problems.

Thanks!

Alex Sabatier - 3 years, 8 months ago

You can save any posted problems, yours or others. If you click your profile picture in the upper right corner, you can think "Profile" and then "Sets", and then click the button "Create Set" as the place to save anything from the community feed. To save a problem or any other post, click open the post, find the triple-dot at the lower right corner, click that, and then click "Save". You'll be given a menu choice of where you want it saved.

Michael Mendrin - 3 years, 8 months ago

I’m sorry.

I went into my profile and I see “Sets” but I have two issues.

One is, I primarily use Brilliant on my phone. It seems to be less intuitive to save problems on iOS.

Secondly, I went to Brilliant on my laptop, and while it’s better to navigate, I still can’t get how to save problems. I’m sure it’s something silly I’m missing...

Alex Sabatier - 3 years, 8 months ago

@Alex Sabatier – Currently, on iOS, Save + Like is only available for standalone problems, instead of those in quizzes (E.g. Problems of the Week, Courses, Practice). Being able to do so for problems in quizzes is a new feature that we would have to plan for.

On Desktop, Save + Like is available for community problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 3 years, 8 months ago

@Calvin Lin – Thanks Calvin!

Yes, more saving options for all questions would be a great feature to add to iOS down the line.

Alex Sabatier - 3 years, 8 months ago

@Alex Sabatier – Noted. I've added it to the list of feature requests :)

Calvin Lin Staff - 3 years, 8 months ago

One advice: Don't make the same mistake as Microsoft when they released Windows 8. They changed everything to which people had gotten used with Windows 7 and they had a flop in front of them. I actually really liked the GUI from the first year. It was fun and dynamic. Plus I could post problems from any tab, instead of being forced to do so from the community tab. It takes a while for anyone to get used to a GUI. Somethings are still kinda alien to me.

But the problems of the day idea, I love.
I work on the problems whenever and as long as time permits (and sometimes even when it doesn't).
I don't think I have ever skipped a problem.
Yes, I'd like to see more problems of the day.
I think your algebra problems keep showing up a lot. How about one from each genre?
I don't really like this GUI as much as the initial GUI. I think it's because I've yet to learn many of the features of this GUI. Maybe if you put a list of the things that you changed in the help section, it might be easier. Plus some Easter eggs along the way, please? I still use Safari because of the YouTube Easter egg. I just love them sooo much! I think others would too.

vishnu c - 5 years, 11 months ago

Well, how to get the problems from yesterday's "problems of the day"? I left the third one to do later today, but I cant find it anymore... :(

Agniprobho Mazumder - 5 years, 10 months ago

That's why they are problems of the day. You have to see/work on them on that day.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 10 months ago

Nice feature indeed and I work on the problems daily.

Deepak Kumar - 5 years, 11 months ago

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}`	$\boxed{123}$