A maths problem meant for an eight-year-old child has stumped the internet, with adults questioning the bizarre out-of-the-box thinking behind it.

The question, part of homework for a child in Year 3, was posted to the Reddit community Mildly Infuriating.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, many parents have been forced to help their children with their schoolwork even more than usual — with the Reddit parent asking for help on the confusing question.

“Jared found these baby birds and needs to care for them," the problem said, alongside a grainy black and white cartoon of birds in a nest.

“Each bird eats about four worms a day. In order to feed them all each day, about how many worms will Jared need to find?”

Reddit users were left scratching their head with one joking, “I'd circle 'OJ' for 'Only Jared knows at this point.”.

While the picture appeared to only show three birds, the question appears to rely on people thinking outside of the box and ignoring the cartoon, instead thinking of multiples of four.

And it was eventually a mum with a child in Year 2 that “dropped some knowledge”.

“We know Jared has to find worms in multiples of four so since 20 is the only answer in a multiple of four we can also deduce that Jared found five baby birds," the user wrote. “My second grader is smart.”

Other users applauded each other for eventually figuring out the right answer but some were still left thinking it was a trick question.

“Am I the only one that thought it was a trick question since they don't specify for how many days?” one user said.

An exam from 1912 that was used in schools in Bullitt County, Kentucky, US was recently uncovered. News.com.au took some of the selected questions and created this quiz so you can see if you’re smarter than a Year 8 student:

This isn’t the first time children’s homework has stumped the internet.

In 2018, mum Angie Werner took to the internet to ask for help after her daughter Ayla came home from school with a particularly gnarly maths problem to conquer.

“There are 49 dogs signed up to compete in the dog show,” the question began.

“There are 36 more small dogs than large dogs signed up to compete. How many small dogs are signed up to compete?”

After the Facebook group she asked for help was also left stumped, Angie eventually revealed the answer after asking the teacher.

The answer oddly, despite it being dogs, was 42.5.

For those interested in how the solution is reached, the working out was: 49-36=13. 13/2=6.5. 36+6.5=42.5.