Welcome to the daily solving of our PROBLEM OF THE DAY with Siddharth Hazra We will discuss the entire problem step-by-step and work towards developing an optimized solution. This will not only help you brush up on your concepts of Maths but also build up problem-solving skills.

In this problem, we are given a techfest is underway, and each participant is given a ticket with a unique number. Organizers decide to award prize points to everyone who has a ticket ID between a and b (inclusive). The points given to a participant with ticket number x will be the sum of powers of the prime factors of x.

For instance, if points are to be awarded to a participant with ticket number 12, the amount of points given out will be equal to the sum of powers in the prime factorization of 12 (22 × 31), which will be 2 + 1 = 3.

Given a and b, determine the sum of all the points that will be awarded to the participants with ticket numbers between a and b (inclusive).

Example :

Input: 
a = 9
b = 12
Output: 
8

Explanation: 
For 9, prime factorization is:32 
So, sum of the powers of primes is: 2
For 10, prime factorization is : 21x51 
So, sum of the powers of primes is: 2
For 11, prime factorization is : 111 
So, sum of the powers of primes is: 1
For 12, prime factorization is : 22x 31 
So, sum of powers of primes is: 3
Therefore the total sum is 2+2+1+3=8.

Give the problem a try before going through the video. All the best!!!
Problem Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/problems/techfest-and-the-queue1044/1