There’s a simple-looking math puzzle that’s been going viral online — and it’s leaving people divided, even adults who haven’t touched school math in years. The puzzle looks like this:

👉 8 ÷ 2 (2 + 2) = ?

At first glance, many people rush to solve it, but the surprising part is that most people don’t agree on the same answer. Some end up with 1, others with 16, and arguments start immediately in the comments.

So why is this puzzle so tricky?

The key is something called the order of operations (you may remember it as PEMDAS or BODMAS from school).

Parentheses first → (2 + 2) = 4
Then division and multiplication, from left to right.

So the problem becomes:
👉 8 ÷ 2 × 4

And since we solve from left to right: