CartesianProduct

In this medium-level challenge, you'll implement CartesianProduct<T, U> which takes two union types and returns a union of all possible tuple pairs combining one member from each set.

CartesianProduct<1 | 2, 'a' | 'b'>
// [1, 'a'] | [2, 'a'] | [1, 'b'] | [2, 'b']

Detailed Explanation

type CartesianProduct<T, U> = T extends T
  ? U extends U
    ? [T, U]
    : never
  : never

How it works:

• T extends T is a distributive conditional type pattern that iterates over each member of the union T. Even though the condition is always true, wrapping it in a conditional causes TypeScript to distribute over the union
• Inside the first distribution, U extends U similarly distributes over each member of the union U
• For each combination of a single member from T and a single member from U, the type produces a tuple [T, U]
• The result is a union of all possible [T, U] pairs, which is exactly the Cartesian product
• For example, CartesianProduct<1 | 2, 'a' | 'b'> produces [1, 'a'] | [1, 'b'] | [2, 'a'] | [2, 'b']

This challenge helps you understand distributive conditional types and how to leverage them for generating combinatorial union types in real-world scenarios.