What is a leap year? What is a common year?

A leap year contains 1 extra day, February 29th, over an ordinary year, 366 vs. 365.

How often do the leap years occur in the calendar?

Nearly once every four years, 97 leap years at every 400 years.

Why do we need leap years?

They keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year, preventing us, for example, from celebrating Christmas in November.

Leap years algorithm.

Every year that is evenly divisible by 4 is a leap year, except for years that are evenly divisible by 100, but these years are leap years if they are evenly divisible by 400:

Examples of leap years.

• Leap years multiples of 4 but not of 100 nor of 400: 1992, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028;
• Common years (NOT LEAP YEARS) multiples of 100, but not of 400: 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300;
• Leap years multiples of 400: 1600, 2000, 2400.