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Collatz Conjecture
Collatz Conjecture

Collatz Conjecture

Easy

Instructions

The Collatz Conjecture or 3x+1 problem can be summarized as follows:

Take any positive integer n. If n is even, divide n by 2 to get n / 2. If n is odd, multiply n by 3 and add 1 to get 3n + 1. Repeat the process indefinitely. The conjecture states that no matter which number you start with, you will always reach 1 eventually.

Given a number n, return the number of steps required to reach 1.

Examples

Starting with n = 12, the steps would be as follows:

  1. 12
  2. 6
  3. 3
  4. 10
  5. 5
  6. 16
  7. 8
  8. 4
  9. 2
  10. 1

Resulting in 9 steps. So for input n = 12, the return value would be 9.

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