The next day at the contest, one question read: “Find the area of a rectangle whose length is twice its breadth, given the perimeter is 36 cm.”

Knowing Our Numbers, Playing with Numbers, Whole Numbers, and Integers. Arithmetic: Fractions, Decimals, and Ratio & Proportion.

Click. A pop-up blared: “You’ve won a free smartphone!” Mira knew it was a trap. She closed the window. Another site asked for her school login. That felt wrong.

Then she saw a note from her math teacher, Mr. Sharma (no relation to the author), pinned to her bulletin board. It read: “The best tool isn’t the answer key. It’s knowing how to find your own path.”