This website represents an online community of scholars who share and solve problems in subjects such as computer science, math, and science. The goal is to help learners build quantitative skills in math, science, and computer science by using fun and challenging interactive explorations. Brilliant guides learners through problem-solving strategies and challenges them to think outside the box.

Website: https://brilliant.org/

What Users Love About the App

“I decided to conquer my fears of inadequacy and stay open to this app, and even in one week I can see how it’s paying off. About six months ago, I tried it but was quickly intimidated and even uninstalled the app. This time, however, I’m staying open and not judging myself when I get incorrect answers. (Although once I did judged the app developers for an “incorrect” answer of mine, but while writing a feedback to them for why their answer and explanation to their answer were incorrect, I realized why their answer was right and what I had missed in my own deductive training to have tracked the incorrect conclusion. LOL.) I do get a nice little dopamine hit though when I see that “Correct!” after hitting “submit.” The program presents in a way that is really encouraging to just get in there and work my mind in new ways. I noticed I feel better and more organized in my thinking when I start my day with about 20+ minutes of these kinds of brain exercises in the morning. So I have my coffee and breakfast while working through some problems in a relaxed way. I’m looking forward to trying other courses/programs after I finish the Logic one.”

“I’ve only been using Brilliant a week, but it’s so much more interesting and engaging and fun than similar learning apps. The experience is like a combination of doing mini- courses with puzzle and game apps. I *never* learned math this way—it would have changed the whole experience for me! (I’m almost sixty years old and doing this mostly for fun, though I’m hoping it might help me with some novice level coding I’m also learning.) The interface is also very attractive and clean.”

“This tool is amazing for self-taught learners and students that want to enhance their critical thinking or mathematical ability, and supplement their academic course work. It’s amazing a resource like this available. The learning content is great people that designed the course work really put thought into every problem. Most problems are fun challenging and interesting. There should be more apps like this.”

“I have never been a math or logic person, so the problems in this app were more challenging to me than they were for most. I wish something like this, with problems and explanations, all for free—were accessible when I was younger. I wouldn’t have known where to start looking! If I started at a young age, my math skills would be better, and I may have actually done math for fun. This the kind of stuff that they ask on IQ tests, not the silly memory or perceptual reasoning stuff they have on online IQ tests. Perceptual reasoning and working memory do not require preconceived knowledge or study like verbal reasoning does (verbal reasoning includes vocabulary and mathematics). However, all three measures can be improved with practice. You just have to know where to find the challenges.”

“I’m going to college and taking academic courses for the first time in several years. I failed the first day assessment for Elementary Statistics, so I dropped it. Since then, I’ve been trying to brush up on my math in various ways. However, most of the “traditional” ways have either not worked, brought up negative associations for me, or both. This app TEACHES math from the ground up, along with many neat tips and tricks, in a way that’s novel and fun for me, but not insulting to my intelligence or dignity. Plus, this app’s approach to teaching math visually and conceptually is getting through to me in ways that several math teachers have failed to do. I only have the FREE version, too! Don’t let the subscription cost scare you! You CAN download, use, and benefit from Brilliant without paying a dime!”

What Users Dislike About the App

“For most of my incorrect answers, I try to learn and understand what I did wrong. For some parts the explanations are helpful but the wording is so skewed that’s it’s a problem to understand without taking time longer than the initial question. Then I found a lot of questions are open-ended or hide important information which makes solving the question a logical guessing game. Example pertaining to a probability question “guess how much money would be made on the average per game” the question however does not tell you how many games will be played leading the player to come with a random guess which will lead them to a wrong answer. If the app is built for the purpose of learning or a wide range of learning levels the questions and explanations should reflect that. Instead of assuming everyone intelligence level will pick on the smallest details and understand what they already didn’t understand to begin with.”

“First of all, I love the idea. I studied Mechanical Engineering but haven’t worked in the field for 5+ years, so I just wanted to see if I still have the understanding of all the principles and check out new fields. I feel like some of the explanations should have been read over by somebody else who hasn’t written it. Most of the time I don’t have issues understanding the principle or I even know it beforehand but reading the text is sometimes more confusing than clarifying.”

“My *only* complaints are: try not to be so vague on some founding principles if at the beginning of the course if it says “Not to worry! You’ll learn about it in the chapter so and so…’’ but then don’t explain the fundamentals if the course is for absolute beginners? 🙄🙄🙄 Secondly, let us know we have to pay for the course beforehand! Please let that be included at least in the introductory section, given an option to buy the full package. Really took me by surprise, I’m sure others as well.”

“I don’t know about using brilliant on my phone or laptop but interacting with the brilliant app is quite uncomfortable when using split-screen. Whenever I’m browsing the course library on landscape mode or portrait mode and select a course to preview, the course overview and course sections vertically split the available screen real estate. It produces a very unflattering squished layout in which reading the course overview or seeing the various sections of each “chapter” is an uncomfortable experience. I don’t need to continue seeing the course overview after I’ve read it once. I believe the course overview and course chapters shouldn’t be split and instead should be static at the top of the page in order to use the whole page real estate to comfortable horizontally scroll throughout the chapter sections (Think of the Netflix app, for example, the main show they’re promoting at the top and different shows are scrollable horizontally, it would be quite annoying if we had to forcibly see the show they’re promoting everywhere as we continue scrolling down/ up while browsing).”

“Many of the explanations for their problems are incomplete and are clearly rushed through (and checked over) by people who already have a thorough understanding of the subject. This leaves the hopeful learner often stuck- wondering how to get from a->b. It’s discouraging because the app is a great idea overall and it does eventually work. With the help of intense googling, the explanations make sense in the end. However, because of this- it’s just not a finished product yet. It shouldn’t be on the market, at least for paying customers, when so much must be supplemented elsewhere due to a lack of due diligence on the part of the devs. The devs should focus more on testing their product to make sure it’s able to teach people and less on advertising all over the universe. Good products sell themselves. This is not yet a good product and they clearly lean into over advertising to compensate.”