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copied!<p>I think you should look at what your end goal is and what your constraints are.</p> <p>Sometimes a bruteforce method can solve a problem in 50ms trying out every combination of solutions and a "clever" solution can solve it in 10ms. At that point, the less clever but easier to understand solution trumps the clever solution.</p> <p>However, there are some problems where brute forcing will not only be inelegant but simply won't work. There are many problems where if you attempt to naively brute force them it will take a significant amount of time to solve them. So obviously, these types of problems need a more elegant approach.</p> <p>So ask yourself, why you are attempting these Project Euler problems? Are you doing it to learn? Then maybe trying a clever solution would be in your best interest but only after you have initially tried a brute force solution to help get a grasp of the problem. </p> <p>When doing the Python Challenge problems I try to do it the most succinct way I can, pushing the limits of my abilities. After I solve it I then review other peoples answers and take mental notes of people who were more clever than myself and what they did. Some people will make special use of a data structure I hadn't thought of that is more suited to the task or they will have little mathematical tricks they use to make their algorithm more efficient. In the end I try to absorb as much of their cleverness as I can and make it show the next time I'm presented with a problem of a similar nature.</p>

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