Puzzle Question and answer.

palindromeChainLength.js

/***

Number is a palindrome if it is equal to the number with digits in reversed order. For example, 5, 44, 171, 4884 are palindromes and 43, 194, 4773 are not palindromes.

Write a method palindrome_chain_length which takes a positive number and returns the number of special steps needed to obtain a palindrome. The special step is: "reverse the digits, and add to the original number". If the resulting number is not a palindrome, repeat the procedure with the sum until the resulting number is a palindrome.

If the input number is already a palindrome, the number of steps is 0.

Input will always be a positive integer.

For example, start with 87:

87 + 78 = 165; 165 + 561 = 726; 726 + 627 = 1353; 1353 + 3531 = 4884

4884 is a palindrome and we needed 4 steps to obtain it, so palindrome_chain_length(87) == 4
***/

var palindromeChainLength = function(n, count = 0) {
  let combinedNumber = n + parseInt(n.toString().split('').reverse().join(''));
  let isPalindrome = (combinedNumber == parseInt(combinedNumber.toString().split('').reverse().join('')));
  if(!isPalindrome && n.toString().split('').length > 1){

      palindromeChainLength(combinedNumber, ++count);
   } else {
     return count;    
   }
};