Question

def recursive_add(s):
    sum = 0
    if len(s) == 1:
        sum += s[0] ** 2
    else:
        recursive_add(s[1:])
        sum += s[0]**2
    return sum


s = [8, 6, 8, 4]

print recursive_add(s)

however, for some reason, 8 gets squared right away and 64 is returned, even though it should be the last number to be squared and added to sum.

Answer 1

def recursive_add(s):
    if s:
        return s[0]**2 + recursive_add(s[1:])
    else:
        return 0