Math puzzles like this are designed to make you answer too quickly. The equation looks simple: 8 + 8 ÷ 8 + 8 × 0. Some people immediately say 0 because they notice the multiplication by zero at the end, while others calculate everything from left to right and still get the wrong result. However, there’s a standard mathematical rule that determines which operations should be completed first.

The key is the order of operations, commonly remembered as PEMDAS or BODMAS. Multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction, working from left to right when they have equal priority. So, we first calculate 8 ÷ 8 = 1. Then we calculate 8 × 0 = 0. Only after completing those operations do we move on to the addition.

The original equation now becomes much simpler: 8 + 1 + 0. Since there are no multiplication or division operations remaining, we simply add the numbers from left to right. First, 8 + 1 = 9, and adding zero doesn’t change the result. That gives us the final answer.

So, did you get it right? The correct answer is 9! The trick is that you can’t simply work from left to right or let the final “× 0” cancel out the entire expression. Following PEMDAS/BODMAS gives us: 8 + (8 ÷ 8) + (8 × 0) = 8 + 1 + 0 = 9. Were you fooled by the zero at the end?