the count returns long; hence, you need to narrow it down to int because this is an int[]

Ah of course, math. Smart and simple!

No, not clearly.

One would think with so many people in the replies not understanding the task that maybe the creator would finally reword or clarify the task with a better example, instead of repeating the one he showed previously in text. But no, gloating is the way to go, I guess.

That is absolutely idiotic. The task, I mean. The solution is genius though.

I just made a double array of different letters and then converted numbers by their digit and power to strings. Worked out perfectly fine both ways! The only exception was 5, it's an edge case.

For what reason was static removed? How does that help?

It takes in any data type.

I'm not happy with it.