Solving for the last two digits of a large number $3^{1000}$? I found this question asking to find the last two digits of $3^{1000}$ in my professors old notes and review guides. 
What material must I know to solve problems like this with remainders.I know Wilson's Theorem and there is mention on this packet of Euler's Theorem. Would I look into that to be able to solve problems like this? Why can we solve problems like this. 
In summary, I decided to look a little bit ahead and in the meantime cool tips and pointers would be great for this area of 'future material type' that will be covered. 
 A: There is almost certainly a better way, but off the top of my head this is how I would do it. Finding the last two digits of $3^{1000}$ is equivalent to computing $3^{1000}\mod100$. As $3^5=243$ we have that $3^5=43\mod100$. You can similarly check that $43^2=49\mod100$, and then $49^2=1\mod100$. Therefore, we have that $3^{20}=1\mod100$. By raising both sides to the power of $50$, we conclude that $3^{1000}=1\mod100$, i.e. the last two digits of $3^{1000}$ are $01$.
A: I'd just start multiplying and see what happens to the last two digits; they're certain to cycle around at some point:
3,9,27,81,43,29,87,61,83,49,47,41,23,69,07,21,63,89,67,01,03,09,27,...
Yes, there it is ... and we see it cycles with a cycle length of 20, and since the 20th is 01, the 1000th will be 01 as well.
But of course that's a pretty dumb method ... I don't know any more advanced method.
A: Using Euler function you will get  phi(100)= 40
                   3^40 = 1 (mod 100).

Since 1000 = 40 x 25...  from there, you can draw your own conclusion. 
A: One could apply the binomial theorem here:
$$
3^{1000} = 9^{500} = (10-1)^{500} = \sum_{k=0}^{500} {500 \choose k}10^k (-1)^{500-k}
$$
The third equality follows from the binomial theorem. All powers of $10^k$ modulo $100$ vanish when $k >= 2$. So, only the first two terms of the sum remain:
$$
3^{1000} \pmod {100} \equiv (10^0 (-1)^{500} + 10^1 (-1)^{499} \ 500) \pmod {100} \equiv 1 \pmod {100}
$$
