“Timmy & Sarah think they are in love, but around where they live, they will only know once they pick a flower each. If one of the flowers has an even number of petals and the other has an odd number of petals it means they are in love.”

The Task: Write a function that will take the number of petals of each flower and return true if they are in love and false if they aren’t.


# Problem Parameters
import codewars_test as test
from solution import lovefunc

@test.describe("Fixed Tests")
def fixed_tests():
    @test.it('Basic Test Cases')
    def basic_test_cases():
        test.assert_equals(lovefunc(1,4), True)
        test.assert_equals(lovefunc(2,2), False)
        test.assert_equals(lovefunc(0,1), True)
        test.assert_equals(lovefunc(0,0), False)

Before we begin writing any code, lets look at this like a software engineer. There are a number of steps we’ll need to take in advance to get an idea of the scope, requirements, rules and restrictions. We’ll need to discover which data types and algorithms would work best for this problem before writing some pseudo code.

Step One: Understanding the Problem

To approach the problem systematically, we start by breaking it down into smaller components. Then, we focus on understanding how these components relate to each other, forming a clear picture of the problem’s structure. At this point, we should also note key components, constraints and expected outcomes.

Lets break down this problem into small pieces:

  • We are provided a function (lovefunc) and two parameters (flower1, flower2).
  • IF one flower is EVEN and the other is ODD, the outcome is TRUE.
  • ELSE the outcome is FALSE.

    • Step Two: Research Potential Solutions

    During this step, we’ll explore different resources like documentation and forums to learn about potential solutions. Studying existing solutions and learning from others experiences, we can broaden our understanding, identifying potential strategies and even gain insights into relevant algorithms and data structures.

    In summary:

  • Explore documentation, forums, and articles to learn about potential solutions.
  • Study existing solutions and learn from others’ experiences for understanding.
  • The problem can be solved using conditional statements.

    • Step Three: Plan and Design

    During the planning phase, we break the problem into smaller parts to better understand its complexity. We explore different strategies and algorithms for solving each part and select the most appropriate approach that aligns with the problem requirements and constraints.

    In summary:

  • Explore different strategies and algorithms to solve each part.
  • Select the most appropriate approach based on requirements and constraints.
  • Integers will be used to represent the number of petals for each flower.

    • Step Four: Implementation

    Using Python’s conditional statements, the function evaluates petal parity and returns True if one flower has an even number of petals and the other has an odd number, and False otherwise. This implementation demonstrates the practical application of our problem-solving approach.

  • Translate problem-solving strategy into executable code.
  • Utilize Python’s conditional statements to evaluate petal parity.
  • Implement function to determine Timmy and Sarah’s romantic compatibility.

    • Here is the completed code:

    

#CodeWars Exercise One: Opposites Attract
def lovefunc( flower1, flower2 ):
    if flower1 % 2 == 0 and not flower2 % 2 == 0:
        return True
    if not flower1 % 2 == 0 and flower2 % 2 == 0:
        return True
    else:
        return False

    Step Five: Optimisation and Big O

    I’m just kidding, sort of. This could be so much more efficient and will be.. soon!