Plugging in numbers strategy for QC quant questions

If I am testing out numbers for a QC quant problem that lets say has X impared to X^2. If I am testing negative numbers, should I assume it If I plug in -1 for X that it would look like -1^2=-1 or (-1)^2= 1?

You should assume the second option (-1)^2 or else the number would always be negative which doesn’t really help you.