Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ii / Paper 4 / 11F / e / Solution

The appropriate homotopy invariance of winding number is: if $H:[0,1{]}^2\to \mathbb{C}\setminus \{0\}$ is continuous and $H(s,0)=H(s,1)$ for each $s$, then all loops $t\mapsto H(s,t)$ have the same winding number. The basepoint may move; every intermediate curve must close and avoid zero.

Compactness gives $m={\min }_{s,t}|H(s,t)|>0$. Uniform continuity gives $\delta >0$ such that $|s-s^{\prime }|<\delta$ implies $|H(s,t)-H(s^{\prime },t)|<m$ for every $t$. Part (d) then makes the winding numbers equal for nearby $s,s^{\prime }$. Subdivide $[0,1]$ into steps smaller than $\delta$ and chain these equalities. ThereforeThis proves the theorem directly for continuous loops, without requiring an integral formula or smooth homotopy.