# Project Euler 45 Hacker News commenters recommended Project Euler and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 12 years (9 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for math-and-code puzzles that reward deep thinking and show how others solved them. Caveat: later problems need heavy math, and explanations are thin. ## Why people recommend it - Sparked love of programming (6 comments): "Project Euler was foundational in my education and growth as a programmer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45904637)) "I too owe had my love for programming captured through project Euler" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45905863)) "Project Euler spurred my love for math and programming when I was 15" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910635)) - More fun than LeetCode-style problems (4 comments): "These are both a lot more fun, and a lot more educational than leetcode problems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906193)) "Solving these were more fun than any other programming problems site I've seen." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906315)) "So much more fun than leetcode. OTOH, unlikely to help you in an interview." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907425)) - Compact problems that reward deep thinking (3 comments): "most of the problems are so compact that you can just read about the full problem, then spend hours and days thinking about possible solutions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45908102)) "I'm so happy to have spent twenty years of my life learning math and solving problems on Project Euler" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907691)) "Thousand of hours on this. Love it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45911050)) - Seeing others' solutions and strategies (4 comments): "The biggest thing I learned from PE was that neither elegant theory nor brute force had a monopoly on successful optimization strategies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907446)) "The most fun on this site is solving a problem and then having your mind blown by solutions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45905169)) "You get to see not just how you solved the problem, but how others saw and tackled it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920320)) ## What people warn about - Too much math, little programming (3 comments): "after that they take more and more time and require deeper mathematical knowledge" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45911992)) "I ended up solving most of them with math and so little programming." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48639062)) "half the problems can be optimized to return 5 # because math" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48638828)) - Little explanation or hints given (2 comments): "the algorithms given are not explained in detail, so the learning experience is somewhat mediocre" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48246722)) "there are no hints or information on how to approach the problem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45904095)) - Accounts deleted or data lost (2 comments): "I remember there were data loss, but my account appears to have been recovered." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907568)) "No one tells you that they delete inactive accounts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907049)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [LeetCode](https://hackerapproved.com/p/leetcode.md): 50 recommend - [Advent of Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/advent-of-code.md): 31 recommend - [Codecrafters](https://hackerapproved.com/p/codecrafters.md): 14 recommend - [AlgoDrill](https://hackerapproved.com/p/algodrill.md): 13 recommend - [Exercism](https://hackerapproved.com/p/exercism.md): 6 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://projecteuler.net/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Project Euler", https://hackerapproved.com/p/project-euler/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).