Rebuilding a tower of ten rings

Ten rings labeled 11 (smallest, on top) to 1010 (largest, on bottom) are stacked on one of three poles. Move the whole stack to another pole, moving one ring at a time and never placing a larger ring on a smaller one. What is the minimum number of moves?

Show hints (2)+
  1. Tower of Hanoi: moving kk disks costs 2k12^k-1.
  2. 2101=10232^{10}-1=1023.

Answer

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1023

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Asked at: Jane Street, Two Sigma

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