arithmetic operators puzzle 3 1 3 6 =8

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Puzzle: Add arithmetic operators (plus, minus, times, divide) to make the following expression true: 3 1 3 6 = 8. You can use any parentheses you’d like. Solution: An interviewer is asking this problem to see how you think and approach problems—so don’t just guess randomly. Try approaching this the following way: What sorts of operations would get us to 8?  I can think of a few: 4 * 2 = 8 16 / 2 = 8 4 + 4 = 8 Let’s start with the first one. Is there any way to make 3 1 3 6 make 4 * 2? We can easily notice that 3 + 1 = 4 (the first two numbers). We can also notice that 6 / 3 = 2. If we had “3 1 6 3”, we’d be done, since (3 + 1)*(6 / 3) = 8. Although it seems a little unconventional to do this,  we can, in fact, just flip the 6 and the 3 to get the solution: (( 3 + 1 )/ 3) * 6 = 8

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Puzzle:

Add arithmetic operators (plus, minus, times, divide) to make the following expression true: 3 1 3 6 = 8. You can use any parentheses you’d like.

Solution:

An interviewer is asking this problem to see how you think and approach problems—so

don’t just guess randomly.

Try approaching this the following way: What sorts of operations would get us to 8? 
I can think of a few:

4 * 2 = 8

16 / 2 = 8

4 + 4 = 8

Let’s start with the first one. Is there any way to make 3 1 3 6 make 4 * 2? We can easily notice that 3 + 1 = 4 (the first two numbers). We can also notice that 6 / 3 = 2.
If we had “3 1 6 3”, we’d be done, since (3 + 1)*(6 / 3) = 8. Although it seems a little unconventional to do this, 
we can,

in fact, just flip the 6 and the 3 to get the solution:

(( 3 + 1 )/ 3) * 6 = 8