Angle Between Clock Hands | Dataford Interview Questions

Your question is Angle Between Clock Hands. Start with the requirements on the right.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

Clearwater Analytics systems may receive time values that need to be converted into geometric features for validation or visualization. Given an hour and minute on a 12-hour analog clock, calculate the smaller angle between the hour and minute hands.

The hour hand moves continuously as the minutes advance. For example, at 3:30, the hour hand is halfway between 3 and 4, not exactly on 3.

Formal Specification

Implement clock_angle(hour, minute).

Input: hour, an integer from 1 through 12, and minute, an integer from 0 through 59.
Output: A floating-point number representing the smaller angle between the hands, in degrees. Return the result rounded to at most 6 decimal places.
The returned angle must be in the inclusive range [0, 180].

Constraints

1 <= hour <= 12
0 <= minute <= 59
The hour hand moves continuously as minutes pass
Return the smaller angle in degrees

Function Signature

def clock_angle(hour, minute):