Though I find it a bit cringey, I've decided to learn in public—hoping it might benefit others (and me if other people wanna learn with me or help along the way)

On Day 1 of my zk journey, I focused on modular arithmetic. Here's a breakdown of what I learned and some invaluable resources:

/ethereum foundation | the tools we create will set us free paragraph.xyz/@chaskin

There's properties to make it easier, some being:
Addition: (a + b) mod n = [(a mod n) + (b mod n)] mod n 
Subtraction: (a - b) mod n = [(a mod n) - (b mod n)] mod n 
Multiplication: (a * b) mod n = [(a mod n) * (b mod n)] mod n

Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmHscLG3ceg&list=PLr3WmPgPWZfX1HUpeyKkP6ir2wOFhqXMO&index=65 (whole playlist is amazing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwaQ4m1eHQo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOwyHTiW4KE
Ask ChatGPT for practice problems along the way. If confused, tell chat to explain it simpler

- If a ≡ b (mod n), a & b have same remainder when divided by n
- You can add, subtract, & multiply like normal but consider modulus
- Multiplicative inverse: a*b ≡ 1 (mod n) if a & n are coprime. Ex: 15 ≡ 3 (mod 6)
- Euclidean Algo to find the lowest common detonator

It's never cringe to put yourself out there. Hope to hear more about your exploration!

You will eventually get to finite fields. I have found the chapter from David Forney's lecture a great introduction to the topic. Only 27 pages btw.

https://web.stanford.edu/~marykw/classes/CS250_W19/readings/Forney_Introduction_to_Finite_Fields.pdf