TCS Ignite Open Lab

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TCS Ignite Open LabCoding Challenge

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.

- Brian Kernighan and Dennis RitchieComputer Scientists, Authors of The C Programming Language

TCS Ignite Open Lab

Cover Page:

The Mindful MacaquesThe mural of the mindful macaque monkeys on the cover page is taken from the walls of

the Ignite research lab. In an experiment on Macaque monkeys, Giacomo Rizzolatti and

his group discovered mirror neurons, which are known to get activated when the

Macaques either perform or observe an action. Neuroscientist V.S Ramachandran,

known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics has

highlighted the importance of mirror neurons in learning, human empathy, evolution of

language and even self awareness! While mirror neurons play a critical part in learning

industrial skills, they may not be central to learning in knowledge-driven economies.

Mindful Macaques © by J.P. Ignite, TCS

The ArtistJ Prabhakar, known as J.P., is a Chennai based artist who specializes in pen-and-ink

line drawings. With no formal education in art, J.P. is entirely self-schooled. Although

his work is focused exclusively on the sacred arts and his themes tend to be temples,

monuments and sculptures, he innovates constantly in terms of technique, technology,

materials, form and content. His pursuit of excellence is a constant source of

inspiration.

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TCS Ignite Open Lab

The TCS Ignite Open Lab – Coding Challenge

Introduction

In this challenge, you will be writing a program to solve the following problem.

You can use C, C++, C#, Java or Haskell to code your solution.

The Challenge

You have a block of platinum that can be exchanged in your bank either for cash

or for smaller blocks of platinum. If you exchange a block of m grams, you get

three blocks of weight m/2, m/3 and m/4 grams each. You don't get any fractional

part, as the division process rounds down the value. If you exchange the block of

platinum for cash, you get m units of currency. You can do any number of

exchanges for smaller blocks or currency.

Given the value of a block in grams as input, write a program that would print the

largest possible currency value that you can receive as the output. Assume that

the maximum value of a block that can be given as an input is 1,000,000,000

grams and the minimum value is 2 grams.

Sample input 112

Sample output 113

Explanation: You can change 12 into blocks of 12/2 = 6, 12/3 = 4 and 12/4 = 3,

and then exchange these for 6 + 4 + 3 = 13 units of currency

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TCS Ignite Open Lab

Sample input 2 2

Sample output 2 2

Explanation: If you exchange 2 grams into smaller blocks, it gives 2/2 = 1, 2/3 =

0, 2/4 = 0, only 1 unit. Instead, you can directly exchange the block for 2 units of

currency.

Scope and Effort

Total expected effort is about 6 person days. This means that one person will be

able to solve this problem in 6 days.

Prerequisites

Any science graduate with programming knowledge will be able to attempt this

challenge. It requires a good knowledge of the chosen programming language

besides good analytical skills typically required to solve any programming

problem.

Submission Process

You have to submit the source code of the solution. Please note that your

program SHOULD NOT print any prompts (“Please type the value of the block”)

nor any header /footer (“***Block Max Value***”) as part of its output.

For example, if you are asked to print out the simple interest correct to two

decimal places for a user specified values of principal, rate of interest and

number of years, then only the following statements should be there

corresponding to reading the input and printing the output:

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TCS Ignite Open Lab

scanf(“%d %d %d”, &principal, &rate, &years);

printf(“%8.2f\n”, principal*rate*years/100.0);

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on the following parameters.

S.No. Parameter1 Compilation and linking/executing without any errors2 Number of test cases satisfied3 Program structure aligned to programming language (modularity for C,

OOPS compliance for C++/C#/Java and functional programming aspects for Haskell)

4 Algorithm5 Code clarity (variable names, indentation, visual block separation, etc)

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