Simulation for https://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/235581/guess-the-slowly-moving-number-with-penalty-for-too-high-guess

q235581.py

import collections
import random

MAX = 2**64

def search(weight, target):
    low = 0
    high = MAX
    time = 0
    while True:
        x = low + (high - low) // weight
        if x < target:
            time += 1
            low = x + 1
        elif x > target:
            time += 300
            high = x - 1
        else:
            return time

for w in range(2, 500):
    a = [search(w, random.randint(0, MAX)) for _ in range(1000)]
    print "%d,%d" % (w, sum(a) / len(a))