Hi, I've done some Project Euler problems and I was able to solve them very fast because I already knew all the theory behind them. I learned that "accidentaly" because I also had to learn it for university. I used to also solve olympiad problems, I wasn't very good but I was solving some of the problems. I've reached the conclusion that Project Euler problems are taken out of their context(and olympiad problems as well). That's why they are hard. Mathematics and it's theory is taught in order to make the problems easy. However, Project Euler apparently makes an invitation at making them hard again. Why ?

I honestly think this is a complete waste of time.

Mathematicians had centuries at their disposal in order to solve math problems and they developed theories to explain properly why certain things happen.

I think olympiad problems and Project Euler problems are really useless.

What's your take on Project Euler ? Do you get something out of it or do you just find formulas on some websites and implement the code fast and then get the result and solve the problem ?