Man this is genius! I totally forgot about .includes(). I ran a forEach on b. 😅

What would be the optimal solution?

Wow this is pretty cool. I didn't know JS checks the ASCII values behind the scenes.

Also, returning the condition itself would work.

Just wasted my time on this. it seems I'm not the only one who has an issue.

After understanding the question, I concluded that this is similar to the pagination algorithm.

1 pancake, 2 pancake limit:

Math.ceil(1/2) * 2 = 2;

This passed all simple tests. How can 3 be expected? Its not a multiple of 2.
You can't serve half pancakes. Even if you did, it'll still take a minute on each side.

I had the same thinking but couldn't articulate it in code. Very clever and readable!

I like this one. It's easier to read.

I like this solution but I'm confused ... why 9?

This is sweet, understandable and simple!

numberOfPairs is redundant. There's no need to calculate it.