Any time you're asked to factor, your first step should be to look for a greatest common factor. After that, if you have two terms left (a binomial) with a subtraction sign (or difference,) you might have a "difference of perfect squares." If both of the terms of your binomial have square roots, then you can use the shortcut for factoring a difference of perfect squares: a^2 - b^2 = (a - b)(a + b)
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