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For contests like, say, Putnam, would Rudin's Principles or Courant's Calculus be a better fit? Courant's book has a lot more problems, and the mathematics involved much more closely resembles what's there is contest calculus. On the other hand, the problems seem mostly trivial or bruteforce computation-based. I am entirely sure that is not true of Rudin.

Please help.

user3460322
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  • "bruteforce computation-based" My copy isn't with me right now, but I was surprised to see this comment about Courant. (I'm assuming you're talking about the 2-volume "Introduction to Calculus and Analysis" books that, I think, were published in the mid 1960s and reprinted several times afterwards.) I wonder whether you are missing the intended solution for some of the problems, or perhaps you are singling out problems that deal with numerical approximation methods (i.e. linear or quadratic approximations, etc.). – Dave L. Renfro Jul 20 '17 at 14:01
  • Related information. https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/79865/difficulty-level-of-courants-book – Takahiro Waki Jul 20 '17 at 14:18

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If you want Putnam Style problems a putnam book may be better suited. Have you looked at Problem Solving through Problems (Larson) or Putnam and Beyond?

Mohit
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