because it's written "Do not use built in functions." in the description, refering to library base64 functions. but this is not enforced. in python nothing is disabled; in JS it's strange, browser base64 functions are disabled, but since Codewars runs JS in Node, not in a browser, this is useless. i think the best thing to do at this point is to drop that requirement, even if the kata in its current state is very overanked :/

Why do you say that?