Solve for $x^{11} + \frac{1}{x^{11}}$ if $x^3 + \frac{1}{x^3} = 18.$ Solve for $x^{11} + \frac{1}{x^{11}}$ if $x^3 + \frac{1}{x^3} = 18.$
I'm familiar with variants of this problem, especially those where the exponent in the given is a factor of the exponent in what we want to solve for, but this one stumped me. 

In the equation $x^3+\frac{1}{x^3}=18$, multiply everything by $x^3$ to get $x^6-18x^3+1=0$. Then let $y=x^3$ and solve $y^2-18y+1=0$, then substitute back in to get $x$. Then you can input the value into $x^{11}+\frac{1}{x^{11}}$ directly.
It winds up being $x^{11}+\frac{1}{x^{11}}=39603$ (regardless of whether you use the plus or the minus in the quadratic formula).
