Collatz Conjecture

Easy
0.0% Acceptance

The Collatz Conjecture or 3x+1 problem can be summarized as follows:

Take any positive integer n.
If n is even, divide n by 2 to get n / 2.
If n is odd, multiply n by 3 and add 1 to get 3n + 1.
Repeat the process indefinitely.
The conjecture states that no matter which number you start with, you will always reach 1 eventually.

Given a number n, return the number of steps required to reach 1.

Examples

Starting with n = 12, the steps would be as follows:

  1. 12
  2. 6
  3. 3
  4. 10
  5. 5
  6. 16
  7. 8
  8. 4
  9. 2
  10. 1

Resulting in 9 steps.
So for input n = 12, the return value would be 9.