DIY: 24 Game

Solve the interview question "24 Game" in this lesson.

Problem statement

Suppose you are given an integer list, cards, of length 4. Each one of the four cards contains a number in the range [1, 9]. You have to check if an arithmetic expression formed by an interleaving of these cards with the operations '+', '-', '*', and '/' evaluates to 24.

You are restricted by the following rules:

  • The division operator '/' represents real division, not integer division.
  • Every operation done is between two numbers. In particular, we cannot use '-' as a unary operator.
  • You cannot concatenate numbers together For example, if ‘cards = [1, 2, 1, 2]’, the expression ‘12 + 12’ is not valid.

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