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A Dumb Introduction to Z3 (2025)

by y1n0 on 4/14/2026, 2:45:27 AM

https://ar-ms.me/thoughts/a-gentle-introduction-to-z3/

Comments

by: asibahi

Previously: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=45248558">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=45248558</a>. Switched domains since then.

4/18/2026, 2:51:00 PM


by: Surac

Problems solved nothing learned. Poking my problems into a black box and getting numbers let me only learn how to poke numbers into black boxes

4/18/2026, 2:05:27 PM


by: wren6991

Z3 struggles with larger problems. CVC5 or Bitwuzla do a lot better once you get into anything complex.<p>If you&#x27;re familiar with the Z3 Python API, you&#x27;ll find the CVC5 one familiar.<p>Caveat: I mostly do logic design, maybe there are some software verification tasks where Z3 comes out ahead. I&#x27;ve never seen one though.

4/18/2026, 12:51:40 PM


by: jebarker

I wonder how often interviewers object to the approach of solving their dynamic programming problem using a constraint solver?

4/18/2026, 2:17:29 PM


by: amelius

If the tutorial uses Rust, why didn&#x27;t they use a solver written in Rust? Z3 was written in C++.

4/18/2026, 12:44:06 PM