eb110 - AABA is a different set of letters with a different set of permutations than ABAB.

I solved the kata by comparing costs.
If you insert a letter, it implies that you have to delete and add a certain letter: (cost 2)
If you simply add or delete: (cost 1)
This is a well known approach called minimum edit distance.
I passed all tests but the one we are talking about.

rkacypviuburk to zqdrhpviqslik, cost: 16 because you have to delete and add 8 letters
rkacypviuburk to karpscdigdvucfr, cost: 12 because you have to delete and insert 5 and also delete 2 letters

Please correct me if I'm wrong!

I thought you have to "use" all letters - so AABA is missing one "B" letter. Or perhaps my logic if wrong.

It seems words with similar length are preferred. zqdrhpviqslik is the same length as rkacypviuburk.
I agree with you, karpscdigdvucfr is more similar, but it's just not what this kata wants:

TERM | WORD | MATCHING PATTERN | SCORE

rkacypviuburk | zqdrhpviqslik | ---r-pvi----k | -3

rkacypviuburk | karpscdigdvucfr | karp-c-i--vu--r | 3

2 too.

Write System.out.println(n); inside your function.

Why don't you simply print the input value?