[Ntrails]

It seems like a failure of the course/teacher if you are asked to solve a problem in which you can't identify the requisite steps and make progress?

In my mind the reason for problems is to practice the techniques taught until you can: a) avoid common pitfalls b) recognise common patterns c) minimise calculation errors with sense checks

However, when this problem set is marked and impacts your results obviously the incentives change from learning by doing to getting 100%. Once you have an app like this for "checking", it takes decent appreciation of the long term outcomes to avoid using it for "solving" and then going off to play some Frog Fractions.

[sp332]

Some problems have several steps or techniques that need to be applied. It's not always obvious which way to go at first. Near the end of a course, or in higher-level courses, there could be hundreds of possible "next steps" that you've learned. Recognizing common patterns doesn't help in uncommon cases.

[IneffablePigeon]

Sure, but that doesn't mean a tool to help when the course/teacher isn't fantastic isn't a good thing. It's an easy thing to abuse, though, and I think self restraint with regards to just googling answers is becoming an important study skill.