Skip to content(if available)orjump to list(if available)

Solving Fizz Buzz with Cosines

Solving Fizz Buzz with Cosines

8 comments

·November 21, 2025

thomasjudge

arealaccount

This would be an offer on the spot from me

stronglikedan

> me: It's more of a "I can't believe you're asking me that."

> interviewer: Great, we find that candidates who can't get this right don't do well here.

> me: ...

Shit attitude from that candidate, considering the interviewer is completely correct. I wouldn't hire them since they are obviously a problem employee.

siegelzero

Very cool! There's definitely some similarity to Ramanujan Sums, though the approach here sort of packages the fizz-buzz divisibility properties into one function. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanujan%27s_sum

tantalor

There are several mentions of "closed-form expression" without precisely defining what that means, only "finite combinations of basic operations".

TFA implies that branches (if statements and piecewise statements) are not allowed, but I don't see why not. Seems like a basic operation to me.

Nevermind that `s[i]` is essentially a piecewise statement.

susam

There is no universal definition of 'closed-form expression'. But there are some basic operations and functions that are broadly accepted, and they are spelled out directly after the 'finite combinations' phrase you quoted from the post. Quoting the remainder of that sentence here:

'[...] finite combinations of basic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, integer exponents and roots with integer index as well as functions such as exponentials, logarithms and trigonometric functions.'

null

[deleted]

ivan_ah

This is very nice.