title: Reading the verification badge category: Solving description: What verified, unverified, unverifiable, and mismatch each mean. order: 3

Reading the verification badge

Every solution carries a small badge showing how confident Ostrol is in the final answer. The badge has four possible states.

Verified

Our symbolic engine reproduced the same answer the solver proposed. This is the strongest signal we can give: two independent systems agree on the result. You can trust it.

You will see this on the vast majority of algebra, calculus, and linear-algebra problems where a closed-form check exists.

Unverified

The solver produced an answer but the symbolic check was skipped — usually because you're on the Fast engine level, which trades verification time for speed. The answer might be right; it just hasn't been double-checked.

If precision matters, re-run the problem on Standard or higher. See Getting started for engine levels.

Unverifiable

The check ran but couldn't reach a conclusion. This happens with problems where a closed-form verification doesn't apply — open-ended proofs, some combinatorics, applied problems with real-world units, and most word problems.

"Unverifiable" is not the same as "wrong". It means we can't automatically confirm it. Read the steps and judge the reasoning yourself.

Mismatch

Our symbolic engine disagreed with the solver's answer. Something is wrong — possibly the solver, possibly the symbolic engine, possibly the parsed input.

When you see a mismatch, Ostrol shows both candidate answers side by side and highlights where the disagreement starts. Re-running on Rigorous or Research usually resolves it. If the OCR text looks suspect, edit it (see Photographing a problem) and resolve.

Why this matters

Most math tools answer confidently whether or not they're right. The badge is our promise to be honest about uncertainty — so you know when to lean in and when to double-check.

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