A Dumb Introduction to Z3 (2025)

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45248558. Switched domains since then.

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

Z3 struggles with larger problems. CVC5 or Bitwuzla do a lot better once you get into anything complex.

If you're familiar with the Z3 Python API, you'll find the CVC5 one familiar.

Caveat: I mostly do logic design, maybe there are some software verification tasks where Z3 comes out ahead. I've never seen one though.

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

If the tutorial uses Rust, why didn't they use a solver written in Rust? Z3 was written in C++.