From 512563e627300657d786f6bc5076dbd7692f28da Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "exercism-solutions-syncer[bot]"
 <211797793+exercism-solutions-syncer[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2026 19:51:12 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] [Sync Iteration] c/collatz-conjecture/1

---
 .../c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.c     | 13 +++++++++++++
 .../c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.h     |  8 ++++++++
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.c
 create mode 100644 solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.h

diff --git a/solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.c b/solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..611a557
--- /dev/null
+++ b/solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.c
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#include "collatz_conjecture.h"
+
+int steps(int start)
+{
+    if (start <= 0)
+        return ERROR_VALUE;
+    if (start == 1)
+        return (0);
+    if (start % 2 == 0)
+        return (steps(start / 2) + 1); 
+    else
+        return (steps(start * 3 + 1) + 1);
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.h b/solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..66b3e4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/solutions/c/collatz-conjecture/1/collatz_conjecture.h
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#ifndef COLLATZ_CONJECTURE_H
+#define COLLATZ_CONJECTURE_H
+
+#define ERROR_VALUE -1
+
+int steps(int start);
+
+#endif