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8 is 1000 and 7 is 0111. Anything between 8 and 0 is going to be 15 because your highest XOR number is 1111. As you can see, you can find this by finding the most significant bit and flipping all the following to 1.
8 is 1000 and 9 is 1001. Here you'll find that the answer is 0001. This is because 8 and 9 share the same most significant bit. So after XOR the most significant bit is 0001.
27 is 11011 and 8 is 01000. Here your MSB is 10000 and you can choose 10111 and 01000.
I wish I could explain it better but it's easiest to notice the pattern and go from there. Every answer will always be a power of 2 minus 1, so every answer is always a series of 1s.
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Maximizing XOR
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The best way I can explain it is with examples.
8 is 1000 and 7 is 0111. Anything between 8 and 0 is going to be 15 because your highest XOR number is 1111. As you can see, you can find this by finding the most significant bit and flipping all the following to 1.
8 is 1000 and 9 is 1001. Here you'll find that the answer is 0001. This is because 8 and 9 share the same most significant bit. So after XOR the most significant bit is 0001.
27 is 11011 and 8 is 01000. Here your MSB is 10000 and you can choose 10111 and 01000.
I wish I could explain it better but it's easiest to notice the pattern and go from there. Every answer will always be a power of 2 minus 1, so every answer is always a series of 1s.