Interesting interview question. .Net
- by rahul
Coding Problem
NumTrans
There is an integer K. You are allowed to add to K any of its divisors not equal to 1and K. The
same operation can be applied to the resulting number and so on. Notice that starting from the
number 4, we can reach any composite number by applying several such operations. For
example, the number 24 can be reached starting from 4 using 5 operations:
468121824
You will solve a more general problem. Given integers n and m, return the minimal number of
the described operations necessary to transform n into m. Return -1 if m can't be obtained from n.
Definition
Method signature: int GetLeastCount (int n, int m)
Constraints
N will be between 4 and 100000, inclusive.
M will be between N and 100000, inclusive.
Examples
1) 4
576
Returns: 14
The shortest order of operations is:
468121827365481108162243324432576
2) 8748
83462
Returns: 10
The shortest order of operations is:
874813122196832624439366590497873283106834488346083462
3) 4
99991
Returns: -1
The number 99991 can't be obtained because it’s prime!
