The 100 Test

A math question that evaluates to 100. Designed to test operator precedence.

TL;DR: 5 + 96 * 1 - 6 / 3 ^ 68 / 2 - 4 + 3 = 100

What is this?

The 100 Test is a simple test for programming languages and calculators alike for testing operator precedence. When correctly evaluated, the result should equal 100 (hence its name).

A way to visualize this test as a human is by adding brackets: 5 + (96 * 1) - ((6 / (3 ^ 68)) / 2) - 4 + 3

...or add another pair of brackets to clear up any ambiguity: (5 + (96 * 1) - ((6 / (3 ^ 68)) / 2) - 4) + 3

Either way, the result of this question is 100. All versions of this question should be equal to 100. If it isn't, then something is wrong with your language/calculator's operator precedence.

I got 66! Does that mean my language/calculator is busted?

Does your language use ^ for bitwise OR? One language that does this is Node.js. In which case, swap out ^ for ** since that seems to be the most common alternative for exponents. If that still doesn't work, try looking for a pow function instead.

Closing Remarks

This test was devised for Harmony, created by essentially smashing a numpad and then tweaking it slightly to equal 100 (instead of the original 97 that it produced).

Sometimes programming languages and calculators with high precision like to make a nice large 99.99999... which is a completely valid answer to this! It's just that most languages round it up because the rest of the decimal number is just 9s.

I am not a mathematician. I literally came up with this equation by smashing a numpad. There is probably an edge case I haven't thought about here.