Less then in bitwise operation

Question

I have a task to practise and I just can't get the solution. It should be noted that I am a total beginner. There is 1min for the exercise, so it should be child's play. But I am racking my brains over it.

I am supposed to write an expression for the following :

Let x and k be variables of type int. Formulate a C condition with bitwise operator that is true exactly when x is less than 2^(k-1).

I would have done this with the ?-operator. So something like

( ) ? 1 : 0

But which condition must be in the brackets? I can't think of a bitwise operator that can be used to compare less than?

I really don't have any Idea :/

Answer 1

It seems you mean something like the following

if ( x < 1 << k - 1 ) { /*...*/ }

provided that the expression k - 1 is not negative.