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A Remainder Problem: “How to find the remainder of 3^7 divided by 7 using modulo arithmetic?”

Answer

Here is a short way.

Fermat’s little theorem says that if p is a prime and b an integer that is not divisible by p, then,
b^(p – 1) = 1 ( mod p ).

In our case, p=7 and b=3. Thus,
3^6 = 1 ( mod 7 )
Multiply both sides by ‘3’ to obtain,
3^7 = 3 ( mod 7)

Done.

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