4OPS: Structural Difficulty Modeling in Integer Arithmetic Puzzles

ArXi:2603.25356v1 Announce Type: new Arithmetic puzzle games provide a controlled setting for studying difficulty in mathematical reasoning tasks, a core challenge in adaptive learning systems. We investigate the structural determinants of difficulty in a class of integer arithmetic puzzles inspired by number games. We formalize the problem and develop an exact dynamic-programming solver that enumerates reachable targets, extracts minimal-operation witnesses, and enables large-scale labeling.