Задача
The spring semester is about to end; many are about to graduate. This time I am amongst these “many” (Yay! 
). After years of hard studying, staying up till the wee hours, trying to cram for a test, I will finally have my degree! I will move on from solving math problems to completing other important tasks and objectives posed in life.
Conveniently enough, in Russian a math problem and any sort of task or objective is just one word, задача. It is a noun of feminine gender; its diminutive is задачка.
| Sg | Pl | |
| Nom | задача | задачи |
| Acc | задачу | |
| Gen | задачи | задач |
| Pre | задаче | задачах |
| Dat | задачам | |
| Ins | задачей | задачами |
| — Ты решила последнюю задачу по физике? — Нет, мне времени не хватило. |
“Did you solve the last physics problem?” “No, I didn’t have enough time.” |
| В этом году я поставил перед собой задачу бросить курить и начать заниматься спортом. | This year I took it upon myself to quit smoking and start working out. |
| Давайте обсудим задачи этого семинара. | Let’s discuss the objectives of this seminar. |
| На данный момент своей главной задачей я считаю окончание университета. | At this moment my main goal is to graduate from the university. |
| Ну и задачку ты передо мной поставила! Я весь город объездил в поисках этой книжки! | What a task you gave me! I drove around the whole city looking for this book! |
Because in English “problem” both means math exercise and trouble, I would imagine that English speakers might confuse the meanings of these words in Russian. For example, when talking about solving a physics problem, you don’t want to use “решить проблему” because in Russian проблема has only one meaning – trouble; so your question would mean to "resolve a problem". Therefore, if you want to ask your classmates if they finished their assigned math problems, you should use the word задача.
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