A number is called a palindrome when it is equal to the number you get when all its digits are reversed. For example, 2772 is a palindrome.

We discovered a curious thing. We took the number 461, reversed the digits, giving the number 164, and calculated the sum of these two numbers:

  461
  164 +
-------
  625

We repeated the process of reversing the digits and calculating the sum two more times:

  625
  526 +
-------
 1151
 1511 +
-------
 2662

To our surprise, the result 2662 was a palindrome. We decided to see if this was a pure coincidence or not. So we took another 3-digit number, reversed it, which gave a larger number, and added the two. The result was not a palindrome.

We repeated the process, which resulted in another 3-digit number that was still not a palindrome. We had to repeat the process twice more to arrive at a 4-digit number, which was a palindrome finally.

The question: What was the 3-digit number we started with the second time?

The answer: Click here!