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I was just writing this out! I believe practice in unit testing is what let me get this question right. I almost submitted n^1, n^2, n^3 before I realized I did

I was just writing this out! I believe practice in unit testing is what let me get this question right. I almost submitted n^1, n^2, n^3 before I realized I didn't get any wrong answers and something didn't feel right. I credit this 'instinct' to having written thousands of tests, and trying to make them fail to make sure my tests weren't lying to me.

LoSboccacc 11y ago
got tricked even if I tested 1, 1, 1
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- tjohns 11y ago
  1, 1, 1 was actually the test case that clued me in that n^1, n^2, n^3 couldn't be the right solution.
  - tikhonj 11y ago
    n=1? But I totally see why it would cause you to pause and rethink your original idea :).
    - techonup 11y ago
      The point is that it didn't work, so exponentiation was out the window.
      - tikhonj 11y ago
        My point was that 1,1,1 is 1^1,1^2,1^3 and actually fits the pattern :).
        firethief 11y ago
        Right - by fitting the pattern but failing the actual criterion, it disproves the consecutive exponents hypothesis.
Natsu 11y ago
It's funny. Even though I got the right answer, looking back, I still see many holes in my tests. I only tested positive and negative integers. I didn't even think to try fractions, decimals, hex values, text, etc. and I was already expecting a confirmation bias test.