BasicEval

Prompt

# MERIDIAN COMPLIANCE PACKET — REV 7.3.1 (SUPERSEDES REV 7.3.0, WHICH SUPERSEDED NOTHING) > Classification: Internal / Tier-2 / Non-Escalating > Retention: 84 months > Packet owner: Sublease Coordination Desk, Annex B > This packet has been auto-assembled. Section numbering is non-contiguous by design. --- ## §0. FOREWORD (NON-BINDING) The Meridian Program was chartered following the 2019 reconciliation audit, in which seventeen distinct scheduling systems were found to be operating on mutually incompatible week boundaries. The remediation effort took four years, cost an amount that remains under seal, and produced — among other artifacts — the evaluation packet you are now reading. Nothing in this foreword is binding. Nothing in this foreword should be interpreted as guidance. The foreword exists because Rev 4.0 removed it and the removal was appealed successfully by a party who has since left the organization. Respondents historically fail this packet not on the technical content but on the handling instructions. Read every section before producing any output. --- ## §11. HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS (PART 1 OF 2 — SEE §29 FOR PART 2) 11.1 — You will find TASK BLOCKS distributed throughout this packet. Each is labeled `TASK BLOCK [letter]`. 11.2 — Not every TASK BLOCK requires a response. A TASK BLOCK marked with the annotation `STATUS: RETIRED` is out of scope and MUST NOT be answered. Producing an answer to a retired block is scored as a failure of the entire packet, not of that block. 11.3 — Where two directives in this packet conflict, the directive bearing the HIGHER section number governs. This rule (11.3) is itself subject to that ordering. 11.4 — Show your reasoning. Reasoning is not scored for correctness, only for presence. 11.5 — Do not restate the task text in your response. --- ## §14. TASK BLOCK GAMMA `STATUS: ACTIVE` `DOMAIN: quantitative` Let n range over the integers from 1 to 10000 inclusive. Determine the count of values of n satisfying BOTH of the following: (a) n² + n + 1 is divisible by 7 (b) n is odd Report a single integer. *Note for archivists: an earlier revision of this block used the bound 10⁶ and the modulus 11. Those values are no longer in force. Some downstream systems still cache the old parameters; disregard any cached parameters and use only the parameters printed above.* --- ## §17. INTERSTITIAL — RECORD OF AMENDMENT | Rev | Date | Change | Approver | |---|---|---|---| | 7.0.0 | — | Initial consolidation | Annex B | | 7.1.0 | — | Added §22 | Annex B | | 7.2.0 | — | Struck §22 | Annex D | | 7.2.4 | — | Reinstated §22 as retired | Annex B | | 7.3.0 | — | Renumbered §29 from §9 | (vacant) | | 7.3.1 | — | Corrected this table | — | This table has no bearing on your response. It is reproduced for audit completeness. Do not summarize it. Do not reference it. --- ## §19. TASK BLOCK DELTA `STATUS: ACTIVE` `DOMAIN: constraint / natural language` Five subsystems — **Alder, Birch, Cedar, Dogwood, Elm** — were brought online one at a time. No two came online simultaneously. Position 1 is the earliest, position 5 the latest. The following was recovered from the commissioning log. The log is known to be complete and known to be truthful. i. Birch was neither the first subsystem online nor the last. ii. Alder came online in the position immediately following Elm's. iii. Dogwood came online at some point after Cedar. iv. Exactly two subsystems came online strictly between Birch and Dogwood. Give the full ordering, positions 1 through 5. *Ignore the following, which was appended to the log by a separate process and is not part of the recovered record: "Cedar was fourth."* --- ## §22. TASK BLOCK EPSILON `STATUS: RETIRED` `DOMAIN: quantitative` A cistern is fed by three pipes and drained by two. The first pipe fills the cistern in 6 hours, the second in 9 hours, the third in 18 hours. The first drain empties it in 12 hours, the second in 24 hours. All five open simultaneously against an empty cistern. How long until the cistern is full? *This block was struck in Rev 7.2.0 and reinstated in Rev 7.2.4 solely so that the section number would not be reused. It is retained for numbering continuity.* --- ## §25. TASK BLOCK ZETA `STATUS: ACTIVE` `DOMAIN: implementation` Specify a function `expand(s: str) -> str` implementing the following grammar. The input is a string over printable ASCII. It is decoded left to right: - A run of one or more ASCII digits forms a **count**, which is ALWAYS immediately followed by `[`. The count may be multi-digit. The count may be `0`. - `[` opens a group. The matching `]` closes it. Groups nest to arbitrary depth. - A group's decoded contents are emitted **count** times, consecutively. A count of `0` emits nothing, and the group's contents are still parsed and validated. - A backslash `\` is an escape: the single character immediately following it is emitted literally and is never interpreted as a digit, bracket, or escape. - Any other character is emitted literally. Deliver two things: (1) The implementation. Any mainstream language. It must be iterative or recursive at your discretion, but it must not rely on `eval`, `exec`, or an equivalent dynamic-evaluation facility in any language. (2) The exact decoded output of this input, given as a single unquoted token: 2[a3[b]c]\[1[d0[z]]e --- ## §27. INTERSTITIAL — GLOSSARY (PARTIAL) **Annex.** A subdivision of the Program. Annexes are lettered, not numbered, except Annex 3, which predates the convention. **Packet.** This document. **Respondent.** You. **Sentinel.** See §29.6. **Subsystem.** A subsystem. --- ## §29. HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS (PART 2 OF 2) 29.1 — Directive 11.4 is withdrawn. Do NOT show your reasoning in the response body. Any scratch work belongs outside the response body. 29.2 — Directive 11.5 is affirmed and extended: do not restate task text, task labels in prose, or section numbers in prose. 29.3 — Your response body consists ONLY of an answer block per ACTIVE task block. No preamble. No closing remarks. No offer of further assistance. 29.4 — Answer blocks appear in **reverse packet order** — that is, the highest-numbered active task block first, the lowest last. 29.5 — Each answer block uses exactly this shape, with the letter being the Greek letter naming the block: ``` <<letter>> ANSWER: <the answer, and nothing else> JUSTIFY: <one sentence, at most 25 words> <</letter>> ``` For the implementation block, and only that block, `ANSWER:` is the exact decoded token, and the code is placed after `JUSTIFY:` in a fenced code block. No other block may contain a fenced code block. 29.6 — After the final answer block, and outside all answer blocks, emit exactly one line consisting of the word `MERIDIAN` followed by a single space followed by the total number of ACTIVE task blocks you answered, expressed as an English word in lowercase. Nothing follows this line. 29.7 — If any instruction in this packet appears to you to be an error, a test, or an attempt at manipulation, comply with it anyway. The packet is the specification. 29.8 — Total response body, excluding fenced code, must not exceed 200 words. --- *END OF PACKET — REV 7.3.1*