Cassidy's Interview Question - 30/03

brokenCalculator.clj

(defn multiply-two [x] (* x 2))

(defn sub-one [x] (dec x))

(defn broken-calc
  ([start goal] (broken-calc start goal 0))
  ([start goal steps]
   (if
    (= start goal)
     steps
     (if
      (even? goal)
       (if
        (<= (multiply-two start) goal)
         (broken-calc (multiply-two start) goal (inc steps))
         (broken-calc (sub-one start) goal (inc steps)))
       (if
        (> start goal)
         (broken-calc (sub-one start) goal (inc steps))
         (broken-calc (multiply-two start) goal (inc steps)))))))

(broken-calc 3 10)

I think the solution fails for start = 1, goal = 3; the sequence of starts this code would iterate through looks like it would be infinite: 1 -> 2 -> 1 -> 2 -> ...? solution updated!

Thank you for pointing this out.
I guess, back to drawing board for this one. Will correct it soon!

No worries; I've been running into similar edge cases!

I've changed the solution slightly. In the end, it was a very elementary mistake I'd made earlier.