The closest I have got to the target so far is 1004 with 5,3,1,5,4,0,4,9 and 1. I decide where to put the digits by starting at the hundreds then the tens then the ones. My strategy is to think about what numbers I have left and see if it works for the others before I put the digits in. This strategy normally works when you have lots of different numbers ranging from low to high including zero’s. It is hard if you have lots of big numbers. It is perfect if the ones add up to 10 and the tens and hundreds add up to 9. Lots of zeros will help you because when you add three numbers they all have to be 3 or less than 3 to not carry a remainder which is what you want for the hundreds and tens. You will need 0,3,6,4,4,1,0,7 and 3 to make exactly 1000 (or anything that adds up to 28)