Problem 44348. Seemingly impossible problem

Created by David Verrelli

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This is a seemingly 'impossible' problem, because variously your function, "impossibleFn", must return an output of either 1 or 2 or 3 for the same input (0, the number zero). Why is this described as "seemingly impossible"? Because it does not satisfy the mathematical definition of a function. Yet there is still at least one way to pass all the tests! (One simple code has been verified to work. However, all's fair in this problem, so try whichever hacks and workarounds are at your disposal.) UPDATE: Now more than three (unrelated) approaches have been verified to pass all the tests.

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Last Solution submitted on Nov 27, 2025

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Jean-Marie Sainthillier on 9 Mar 2018

Add more tests, for example:
Test1 : 0->1
Test2: 1->1
Test3: 0->2
Test4: 6->6
Test 6: 0->0
...

David Verrelli on 10 Mar 2018

Hello, Jean-Marie Sainthillier. Thanks for the suggestion. If I understand you correctly, that could be done, but it would break all/most of the previous submissions, so it seems better to do that in a separate problem — if you would like to make one. —DIV

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Problem 44348. Seemingly impossible problem

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Problem 44348. Seemingly impossible problem

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Last 200 Solutions

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Problem Recent Solvers26

Suggested Problems

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