Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    // Your logic here
    uint16_t ret_val = 0;
    for(int i=0; i<8; i++)
    {
        ret_val |= ((val >> i) & 1U) << (2 * i);
    }
    return ret_val;
    //     uint16_t result = val;
    // result = (result | (result << 4)) & 0x0F0F; // Spread nibbles
    // result = (result | (result << 2)) & 0x3333; // Spread pairs
    // result = (result | (result << 1)) & 0x5555; // Spread individual bits
    // return result;
}

int main() {
    uint8_t val;
    scanf("%hhu", &val);

    uint16_t result = spread_bits(val);
    printf("%u", result);
    return 0;
}

Solving Approach