Jewish Problems · HackerPapers discussions

Jewish Problems — mentioned by jmount

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 17:01:30 GMT

You might want to check out Moscow State's "Jewish Problems" (hard math problems to throw in people's way): https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by TimorousBestie

Thu, 28 May 2026 19:40:56 GMT

Russian-style competition math has something of a sad history, see for example https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 (This is not an argument that whatever “Russian-style” math program espoused here is “bad,” it’s additional historical context that HNer’s may be interested in.)

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by MengerSponge

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 04:31:09 GMT

America used to do that, but Jewish students started taking (and doing well on) the test, and later Black and Asian students had the audacity to be brilliant too. This led to America's "holistic" college admissions process. For what it's worth, the USA isn't unique in adapting admissions to reject an unwanted minority. The most interesting mechanism has to be Moscow State University's Jewish Problems: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 03:42:59 GMT

Jewish Problems

5 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by terminalbraid

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 23:33:49 GMT

In a similar vein, linked are math questions Russian universities would give to Jewish students to filter them out in entrance exams. https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by rdtsc

Tue, 07 May 2024 20:40:53 GMT

> like we are stuck in a cargo-cult mentality where we are just doing things because that’s what the big companies do, and if it works for them it must be what we need to do. Absolutely. They do leet code -- we must as well. Google is laying people off -- so must we. Steve Jobs was an asshole, I also must be an asshole, that's how you grow a great company. > The question, which I’ve heard is a Facebook favorite, was “convert a decimal number to base negative 2”. Assuming I don't care as much about the the interview and am just practicing, I would have asked "so how often do you folks, convert…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:16:26 GMT

Jewish Problems: Problems Designed to Prevent Jews Getting a Passing Grade

5 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by mynegation

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 02:50:35 GMT

Some European test systems were rigged as well. https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 22:49:23 GMT

Jewish Problems

13 points; 5 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by gregsadetsky

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 21:10:08 GMT

One of my grandmothers, born about 100 years ago in Romania (she’s not with us anymore), told me many times she was denied from pursuing math education because of then Nazi policies of “numerus nulus” i.e. the exclusion of jews from public universities. There’s a fascinating wikipedia page on the topic of racial academic exclusions - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerus_clausus And related to math exams, this paper of problems that looked easy but were quite difficult (and which were given to jews in the USSR) is also quite interesting — https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 01:03:37 GMT

'Jewish' Problems (2011)

4 points; 3 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by isbvhodnvemrwvn

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 19:42:51 GMT

I don't support the idea the guy was spouting, but there is an interesting article about "Jewish problems", which were questions asked to undesirable (including Jewish) candidates at universities in the Soviet Union (in this case Moscow State University after 6 days' war) - PDF warning: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.1556v2.pdf

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by TrackerFF

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 18:53:52 GMT

But also pretty good at excluding for example Jews from certain prestigious schools, see: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by Znafon

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 10:07:35 GMT

I’m referring to the easy looking, tricky to solve problems. I’ve heard them referred to by that term because they have been used at Moscow University to discriminate against Jewish students but I don’t know if they have other names. There is some discussions and examples of such problems at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.1556.pdf and http://3038.org/press/shen.pdf.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by elahieh

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 22:24:24 GMT

Your theory has been seen before in other contexts - https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 The Mathematics Department of Moscow State University, the most prestigious mathematics school in Russia, was [around 1975] actively trying to keep Jewish students (and other “undesirables”) from enrolling in the department. One of the methods they used for doing this was to give the unwanted students a different set of problems on their oral exam. I was told that these problems were carefully designed to have elementary solutions (so that the Department could avoid scandals) that were nearly impossible to…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 01:05:25 GMT

Jewish Problems (2011)

110 points; 126 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by molesy

Fri, 07 May 2021 01:59:03 GMT

https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by mnw21cam

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 15:16:18 GMT

Similarly, https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 - the "Jewish Problems" that were extra-hard maths questions used to find an excuse to prevent certain students from getting into university.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by daniellarusso

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 20:23:01 GMT

Your comment reminds me of the ‘Jewish Problems’ math exam. https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by golergka

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:02:58 GMT

They used to present applying Jews with special problems: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 This practice was supposed to end with sovient union — but my school, which always had a fair share of jews that applied to math department in MSU, taught those in 00s, and athough discriminiation wasn't as blatant then, I'm not sure that it completely went away.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by playing_colours

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 09:30:35 GMT

You can find here https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 infamous "Jewish Problems" that were given to select applicants during entrance exams to the math department of Moscow State University. They were designed to prevent Jews from getting a passing grade.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by godelski

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 18:17:20 GMT

For more ridiculous math problems I want to submit: The Jewish Problems[0]. These were used when Jewish people were trying to get into grad school in Russia in the '70's. Basically designed so Jewish people wouldn't get in. [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 03:53:55 GMT

Jewish Problems (2011) [pdf]

37 points; 33 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by OscarCunningham

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 21:23:02 GMT

Tanya Khovanova has a paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 with a list of some more of these problems with easy solutions that are hard to find. She calls them "Jewish Problems" because they were used by USSR universities to discriminate against Jewish applicants. The applicants would fail to solve them but the university would justifiably be able to claim they were easy.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by narrator

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 21:47:11 GMT

There's lots of sneaky ways they tried to limit Jewish access to higher eduction in Russia. Jewish Problems, for example: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by spython

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 15:57:31 GMT

This reminds me of Jewish Problems[0], designed to "prevent Jews and other undesirables from getting a passing grade" at the entrance exams to the math department of Moscow State University. [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by 394549

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 21:32:29 GMT

> "Leningrad University’s maths department had a quota of two Jews per year among 350 students. Its Moscow equivalent was more zealous and actively investigated all candidates for traces of a Jewish background. Students with Jewish sounding names were refused entry, just in case." They also had their own tricky, deniable way to accomplish the their discrimination: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 > This is a special collection of problems that were given to select applicants during oral entrance exams to the math department of Moscow State University. These problems were designed to prevent…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by NumberSix

Sun, 12 Nov 2017 19:45:19 GMT

I would not take excuses like this for rejecting a candidate, especially a highly qualified/skilled candidate, at face value. Despite the pervasive rhetoric about wanting the "best" or hiring only the "best," both individual interviewers and companies as a whole are often afraid of hiring candidates who know more or are more skilled than themselves. The unstated fears include that the candidate will, if hired, outshine colleagues, his or her boss, or even, in some cases, the founder or CEO of the company -- especially in the case of startups where venture capitalists or other investors could…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Sat, 07 Oct 2017 15:27:21 GMT

These problems were designed to prevent Jewish people from passing (2011)

156 points; 170 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by nordsieck

Fri, 04 Mar 2016 21:06:05 GMT

You might have a fun time with the "Jewish Problems". http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.1556.pdf

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Mon, 18 Jan 2016 12:16:49 GMT

Jewish problems (2011)

120 points; 95 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by 11001

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:16:39 GMT

See also: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Fri, 13 Dec 2013 08:36:33 GMT

Jewish Problems - hard math problems with simple solutions

1 point; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by Crito

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:41:30 GMT

I'm not sure if you are making an intentional reference to this or not, but it does make an interesting counter-point to the assertion that mathematics is a meritocracy: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 "This is a special collection of problems that were given to select applicants during oral entrance exams to the math department of Moscow State University. These problems were designed to prevent Jews and other undesirables from getting a passing grade. Among problems that were used by the department to blackball unwanted candidate students, these problems are distinguished by having a simple…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by tokenadult

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:14:56 GMT

Some basic facts about college admission in the United States: 1) Most colleges admit large numbers of students who are officially reported as "race/ethnicity unknown." 2) The definition of "race" categories in current United States regulations is arbitrary, acknowledged by the Census Bureau to be unscientific, does not match categories used in any other country, and has changed several times in my lifetime. 3) "Jewish" has never been an officially regarded category in the United States for tracking data on the issue of college admission, but Jews once faced considerable barriers getting into…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by ivolo

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:29:43 GMT

Regarding immigration: I don't know if there was much selection bias as we were in the immigration queue for 10 years before being selected. The Anti-Defamation League told Bill Clinton that the situation in Russia was getting worse (1996), and he increased the annual quota of Russian Jews allowed to enter the US. Regarding the second point: we have no more relatives in Russia, so the narrative is not meant to help anyone immigrate to the US. As far as the story goes that Russians were equally discriminated against, and it was a case of bribery, you can take a look at my comment below of more…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by shmerl

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 01:40:10 GMT

Here you go: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:21:46 GMT

Jewish Problems

115 points; 69 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by lini

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:46:01 GMT

About a year ago I read a paper that listed a number of those "Jewish Problems" (ambiguous or hard problems given at entrance exams). For those interested - http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by eneveu

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:25:35 GMT

Guess they should use "Asian Problems"? http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3096793

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — mentioned by staunch

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:29:54 GMT

> ...these problems are distinguished by having a simple solution that is difficult to find. Like the place to view the problems, for me at least: PDF http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.1556v1

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Jewish Problems — HN submission

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:18:53 GMT

Jewish problems

303 points; 187 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.