If I asked you to multiply 51,689 by 89,542 without using your phone or calculator, how much time would it take you? Fourteen-year-old Aaryan Shukla can solve this arithmetic in a matter of seconds—without even using a pen and paper. His mind races through numbers faster than most people can punch them into a calculator
Here’s something even crazier: Aaryan can mentally add 100 four-digit numbers in just about 30 seconds. Even if you’re a lightning-fast typist, just entering those numbers would take at least a couple of minutes. So how does Aaryan do it?
To test his mental math-solving skills, the Guinness World Records team recently invited Aaryan to Dubai, where he was asked to solve some of the world’s toughest mental calculations. The child prodigy surpassed expectations and broke six world records in a single day.
The master of mental math
Aaryan Shukla was born in Maharashtra, India, and since childhood, he has developed a knack for mental math. His parents recognized their son’s talent early on when he was just six years old. Two years later, Aaryan won an international mental math tournament.
“At the age of six, he started the practice of mental calculation, and he was very good, so we started doing some research on this. At the age of eight, we went for an international competition, and he won medals and trophies, which were great achievements,” Aaryan’s mother said.
He is the only one in his family—including relatives from both his mother’s and father’s sides—who can perform mental calculations at incredible speed. Aaryan’s father believes his son is gifted, but talent isn’t enough and requires nurturing.
For the past eight years, they have helped their son maintain a healthy balance between his studies, mental math practice, and well-being. Aaryan practices mental calculations for about five to six hours every day to prepare for different competitions. He believes that this practice is the key to performing well at international-level mental math tournaments.
Next, he does his school work and then makes time to read books and play cricket. To keep his mind and body sharp, he also regularly performs Sahaja Yoga, a meditation technique that allows a person to achieve calmness, focus, and inner peace.
In addition to his natural talent, it’s his disciplined lifestyle that has turned him into one of the world’s fastest human calculators. Moreover, his father believes that destiny has also played an important role in his son’s success and hopes he’ll continue to learn and grow.
“Aaryan is a one-in-a-billion kind of person. In the last eight years of his journey, he has achieved so much, so I think he’s not only hardworking and talented, but he’s also gifted by destiny to learn so many things at such a young age,” Aaryan’s father added.
Winning trophies and breaking records
In 2022, Aaryan participated in the Mental Calculation World Cup, one of the most prestigious mental math tournaments. He won the championship, became the world champion, and defended his title again in 2024.
Last year, he was invited to Lo Show Dei Record, an Italian TV show featuring Guinness World Record (GWR) holders. During the show, he shocked everyone by mentally adding 50 five-digit numbers in just 25.19 seconds
Impressed with his performance this year, the GWR team asked him to attempt the toughest known mental math problems. Again, he delivered a stunning performance, shattering six world records in a single day.
He added 100 four-digit numbers in 30.9 seconds, 200 four-digit numbers in one minute 9.68 sec, and 50 five-digit numbers in 18.71 sec (breaking his own previous record of 25.19 seconds). Aaryan also mentally divided a 20-digit number by a ten-digit number (set of ten) in 5 min 42 sec, multiplied two five-digit numbers in 51.69 sec, and two eight-digit numbers in 2 min 35.41 seconds.
No other human has ever performed these calculations so fast, making Aaryan the world’s fastest human calculator. What’s even more interesting is that even Aaryan has no clue what makes his brain so good at mental math.
“A lot of things in mental calculations happen in a flash of a second, so I cannot say what happens inside my head; I just do it naturally. Basically, it’s so fast that you can’t think; you just need to do the calculations,” Aaryan said
