calculate mod using pow function python

Question

So, If i would like to calculate the value of 6^8 mod 5 using the pow function, what should I put in a line??

In the assumption that You don't need to import it first

I know that pow is used like pow (x, y) = pow (6, 8) = 6^8 and

My guess is

mod.pow(6,8)

Thank you!

Answer 1

It's simple: pow takes an optional 3rd argument for the modulus.

From the docs:

pow(x, y[, z])

Return x to the power y; if z is present, return x to the power y, modulo z (computed more efficiently than pow(x, y) % z). The two-argument form pow(x, y) is equivalent to using the power operator: x**y.

So you want:

pow(6, 8, 5)

Not only is pow(x, y, z) faster & more efficient than (x ** y) % z it can easily handle large values of y without using arbitrary precision arithmetic, assuming z is a simple machine integer.