Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t x = 0;
    int j;
    for(int i = 0; i <= 15; i++) {
        if(i % 2 == 0) {
            j = i / 2;
            if(val & (1U << j)) { 
                x |= (1U << i);
            }
        }
    }
    return x;
}
int main() {
    uint8_t val;
    scanf("%hhu", &val);
    uint16_t result = spread_bits(val);
    printf("%u", result);
    return 0;
}

Solving Approach