Fizzbuzz, Interviews, And Overthinking

cases = ( (3, 'Fizz'), (5, 'Buzz'), (7, 'Bazz'), (11, 'Boo'), (13, 'Blip'), ) for i in range(1, 101): out = [] for c in cases: if i % c[0] == 0: out.append(c[1]) if out: print ''.join(out) else: print i Edit: not to detract from the post's point, I think it's valid. Monoids are cool and all but simple counting arguments can take you a long, long, long, way when case analysis fails you.

Python can produce extensible solutions! It can! (Edit from sillier comment.) def fizzbuzz(n): outstring = "" outputs = {5: "buzz", 3: "fizz", 7: "bar"} for x in sorted(outputs.keys()): if n % x == 0: outstring += outputs[x] if outstring: return outstring return n Then all you gotta do to add more prime numbers is stick them in the dict (or factorize composite numbers you want to put in). Which is more idiomatic in python than endless if elif elif elif…

Actually, the control flow only requires you to know that you've done SOMETHING out of the ordinary, but not WHAT you've done. A C example that is easily extensible: void fizzBuzz(void) { bool alternateUsed = false; for(int i = 1; i <= 100; i++) { if(i % 3 == 0) { printf("Fizz"); alternateUsed = true; } if(i % 5 == 0) { printf("Buzz"); alternateUsed = true; } if(!alternateUsed) { printf("%d", i); } printf("\n"); alternateUsed = false; } } All you…