A question in a maths GCSE exam paper left many pupils stumped, with some claiming it was impossible.
The tricky question in the Edexcel GCSE maths paper would have been tackled by thousands of students up and down the country this week.
Afterwards a number of students and their parents voiced their frustrations.
One parent told the Manchester Evening News that even some teachers at their child's school struggled to come up with the solution to the 'impossible' question.
A University of Manchester maths student even admitted he found it 'tough'.
Candidates were asked to work out the area of the shaded part of some circles, if all the circles have a radius of four.
"A tough one, even I had to spend some time looking where to start," Manchester university student Harry Surplus tweeted.
"Sorry #EdexcelMaths but what was that last question," one student tweeted. Another said they spent '20 mins... just staring at the last question'.
Maths teacher Jonathan Baker also took to Twitter to offer the correct method of answering the question.
As well as leaving many teenagers nonplussed, the conundrum is sure to leave many in a cold sweat as they have flashbacks to their own maths exams.
Edexcel have been approached for comment.
Meanwhile, nearly half a million children may have started their GCSEs this week without getting any support from the flagship Covid catch up scheme.
As revealed by the Mirror, Labour analysis found that 490,800 Year 11 pupils were estimated to have missed out on help from the National Tutoring Programme this year.
Boris Johnson promised personal tutoring provision to help children catch up after the pandemic wreaked havoc on their learning.
But the roll out has been criticised for failing to reach poorer pupils who were already behind their wealthier classmates before the pandemic hit.
A recent report by the Commons Education Committee warned that disadvantaged children could be up to eight months behind at school due to Covid disruption and catch-up plans are failing to get to them.
Shadow Schools Minister Stephen Morgan warned that the "inadequate" catch-up plans risk cementing the widening the attainment gap.
He said: “This Government’s miserable failure to address Covid lost learning has left thousands of students to sit this years’ exams without the support they need."
