# Hackerrank - Sherlock and the Beast

I am trying to solve the Sherlock and The Beast HackerRank challenge. Most tests timeout, however when I try a custom stretch test case (T = 20 and all N = 100000), it returns successfully, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

The idea of the algorithm is that I find the number of possible combinations of threes and fives for a given number of digits, then I treat threes as zeros and fives as ones, in order to process a binary number. So for N = 3 digits, we have 8 combinations (from 7 to 0) which in binary terms is (descending) from 111 to 000, which in three and five terms is from 555 to 333.

public class Solution {

public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
int testCases = in.nextInt();
for(int i = 0; i < testCases; i++){
System.out.println( solve( in.nextInt() ) );
}
}

private static String solve(int n){

long combos = (long)Math.pow(2,n);
for(long i = combos-1; i>=0; i--){
String toStr = String.format("%"+n+"s", Long.toBinaryString(i)).replace(' ', '0');

String modified = toStr.replace("0","3").replace("1","5");
int threes =0;
for( int j=0; j<modified.length(); j++ ) {
if( modified.charAt(j) == '3' ) {
threes++;
}
}
if(threes%5==0) {
int fives =0;
for( int k=0; k<modified.length(); k++ ) {
if( modified.charAt(k) == '5' ) {
fives++;
}
}
if(fives%3==0) return modified;
}
}
return "-1";
}
}

• You say that you're testing this with n=100000? It quite clearly can't give correct results for any value of n greater than 63, so I think you need to start by checking your test wrapper. Apr 16 '14 at 16:09
• Strange thing is that I didn't test it locally, I just relied on Hackerrank's interface which indeed returned "success" for n=100000. I ca see now that the algorithm is off. Anyway thanks. Apr 17 '14 at 15:45

My non-exhaustive list of comments, considering that you seem to prefer (based on observed skill level) plain Java and do not want to use Java 8 yet.

1. Adhere to the Java's coding standards. One of the catches here is that method names are in camelCase, so it would be private static String solve(int n) {.

2. Intendation and code formatting. You seem to not be using a single standard for all your code. Furthermore I have to say that using spaces where neccessary will not cause any harm, some examples and improvements.

2.1. for(int i = 0; i < t; i++){ -> for (int i = 0; i < t; i++) {

2.2. long combos = (long)Math.pow(2,n); -> long combos = (long)Math.pow(2, n);

2.3. if(threes%5==0) { -> if (threes % 5 == 0) {

3. On to the next point, variable names. It does not hurt to use longer variable names if that makes them more meaningful. In your main you have a variable called t, this name is not descriptive, please consider describing what it actually means. Another example is i, ii and iii in your for-loops, it is much more natural to use i, j, k for these variables.
4. You could use more abstraction, as your solve method is not easy to follow at all. Consider creating smaller methods that process one step at a time, this will also enable you to be able to test your methods at some point.