Let $p$ be a prime satisfying $p^2\mid 2^{p-1}-1$, and let $n$ be a positive integer. Define \[ f(x) = \frac{(x-1)^{p^n}-(x^{p^n}-1)}{p(x-1)}. \] Find the largest positive integer $N$ such that there exist polynomials $g(x)$, $h(x)$ with integer coefficients and an integer $r$ satisfying $f(x) = (x-r)^N g(x) + p \cdot h(x)$. [i]Proposed by Victor Wang[/i]

[b]p1.[/b] Can a number ending in $1999$ be the square of a natural number? [b]p2.[/b] The Three-Headed Snake Gorynych celebrated his birthday. His heads took turns feasting on birthday cakes and ate two identical cakes in $15$ minutes. It is known that each head ate as much time as it would take the other two to eat the same pie together. In how many minutes would the three heads of the Serpent Gorynych eat one pie together? [b]p3.[/b] Find the sum of the coefficients of the polynomial obtained after opening the brackets and bringing similar terms into the expression: a) $(7x - 6)^4 - 1$ b) $(7x - 6)^{1999}-1$ [b]p4.[/b] The general wants to arrange seven anti-aircraft installations so that among any three of them there are two installations, the distance between which is exactly $10$ kilometers. Help the general solve this problem. [b]p5.[/b] Gulliver, whose height is $999$ millimeters, is building a tower of cubes. The first cube has a height of $1/2$ a lilikilometer, the second - $1/4$ a lilikilometer, the third - $1/8$ a lilikilometer, etc. How many cubes will be in the tower when its height exceeds Gulliver's height. ($1$ lilikilometer is equal to $1000$ lilimeters). [b]p6.[/b] It is known that in any pentagon you can choose three diagonals from which you can form a triangle. Is there a pentagon in which such diagonals can be chosen in a unique way? [b]p7.[/b] It is known that for natural numbers $a$ and $b$ the equality $19a = 99b$ holds. Can $a + b$ be a prime number? [b]p8.[/b] Vitya thought of $5$ integers and told Vanya all their pairwise sums: $$0, 1, 5, 7, 11, 12, 18, 24, 25, 29.$$ Help Vanya guess the numbers he has in mind. [b]p9.[/b] In a $3 \times 3$ square, numbers are arranged so that the sum of the numbers in each row, in each column and on each major diagonal is equal to $0$. It is known that the sum of the squares of the numbers in the top row is $n$. What can be the sum of the squares of the numbers in the bottom line? [b]p10.[/b] $N$ points are marked on a circle. Two players play this game: the first player connects two of these points with a chord, from the end of which the second player draws a chord to one of the remaining points so as not to intersect the already drawn chord. Then the first player makes the same “move” - draws a new chord from the end of the second chord to one of the remaining points so that it does not intersect any of the already drawn ones. The one who cannot make such a “move” loses. Who wins when played correctly? (A chord is a segment whose ends lie on a given circle) PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c2416727_soros_olympiad_in_mathematics]here[/url].

Let $g:\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}$ with $g(n)$ being the product of the digits of $n$. (a) Prove that $g(n) \le n$ for all $n\in \mathbb{N}$ (b) Find all $n\in \mathbb{N}$ for which $n^2-12n+36=g(n)$

A train accelerates at $10$ mph/min, and decelerates at $20$ mph/min. The train’s maximum speed is $300$ mph. What’s the shortest amount of the time that the train could take to travel $500$ miles, if it has to be stationary at both the start and end of its trip? Please give your answer in minutes.

Let $t_{k} = a_{1}^k + a_{2}^k +...+a_{n}^k$, where $a_{1}$, $a_{2}$, ... $a_{n}$ are positive real numbers and $k \in \mathbb{N}$. Prove that $$\frac{t_{5}^2 t_1^{6}}{15} - \frac{t_{4}^4 t_{2}^2 t_{1}^2}{6} + \frac{t_{2}^3 t_{4}^5}{10} \geq 0 $$ [i]Proposed by Daniel Velinov[/i]

If $0<a_1< \cdots < a_n$, show that the following equation has exactly $n$ roots. $$ \frac{a_1}{a_1-x}+\frac{a_2}{a_2-x}+ \frac{a_3}{a_3-x}+ \cdots + \frac {a_n}{a_n - x} = 2015$$

Let $n$ be a natural number, $n \ge 5$, and $a_1, a_2, . . . , a_n$ real numbers such that all possible sums $a_i + a_j$, where $1 \le i < j \le n$, form $\frac{n(n-1)}{2}$ consecutive members of an arithmetic progression when taken in some order. Prove that $a_1 = a_2 = . . . = a_n$.

Let $c \geq 1$ be an integer, and define the sequence $a_1,\ a_2,\ a_3,\ \dots$ by \[ \begin{aligned} a_1 & = 2, \\ a_{n + 1} & = ca_n + \sqrt{\left(c^2 - 1\right)\left(a_n^2 - 4\right)}\textrm{ for }n = 1,2,3,\dots\ . \end{aligned} \] Prove that $a_n$ is an integer for all $n$.

Find all the triplets of real numbers $(x , y , z)$ such that : $y=\frac{x^3+12x}{3x^2+4}$ , $z=\frac{y^3+12y}{3y^2+4}$ , $x=\frac{z^3+12z}{3z^2+4}$

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Let $x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n > 1$ be real numbers whose product is $n+1$. Prove that \[\left(\frac{1}{1^2(x_1-1)}+1\right)\left(\frac{1}{2^2(x_2-1)}+1\right)\cdots\left(\frac{1}{n^2(x_n-1)}+1\right)\geq n+1\] and find for which values equality holds.

A positive integer \( r \) is given, find the largest real number \( C \) such that there exists a geometric sequence $\{ a_n \}_{n\ge 1}$ with common ratio \( r \) satisfying $$ \| a_n \| \ge C $$ for all positive integers \( n \). Here, $\| x \|$ denotes the distance from the real number \( x \) to the nearest integer.

Given a positive real $t$, a set $S$ of nonnegative reals is called $t$-good if for any two distinct elements $a,b$ in $S$, $\frac{a+b}2\ge\sqrt{ab}+t$. For all positive reals $N$, find the maximum number of elements a $t$-good set can have, if all elements are at most $N$. [i](Proposed by Ho Janson)[/i]

Let $a,b,c{}$ be positive real numbers. Prove that \[108\cdot(ab+bc+ca)\leqslant(\sqrt{a+b}+\sqrt{b+c}+\sqrt{c+a})^4.\]

Find the strictly increasing functions $f : \{1,2,\ldots,10\} \to \{ 1,2,\ldots,100 \}$ such that $x+y$ divides $x f(x) + y f(y)$ for all $x,y \in \{ 1,2,\ldots,10 \}$. [i]Cristinel Mortici[/i]

Let $n\ge 2$ be a positive integer. For any integer $a$, let $P_a(x)$ denote the polynomial $x^n+ax$. Let $p$ be a prime number and define the set $S_a$ as the set of residues mod $p$ that $P_a(x)$ attains. That is, $$S_a=\{b\mid 0\le b\le p-1,\text{ and there is }c\text{ such that }P_a(c)\equiv b \pmod{p}\}.$$Show that the expression $\frac{1}{p-1}\sum\limits_{a=1}^{p-1}|S_a|$ is an integer. [i]Proposed by fattypiggy123[/i]

Determine the range of the following function defined for integer $k$, \[f(k)=(k)_3+(2k)_5+(3k)_7-6k\] where $(k)_{2n+1}$ denotes the multiple of $2n+1$ closest to $k$

Determine all functions $f:(0,\infty)\to\mathbb{R}$ satisfying $$\left(x+\frac{1}{x}\right)f(y)=f(xy)+f\left(\frac{y}{x}\right)$$ for all $x,y>0$.

Let $x, y$ be distinct positive integers. Show that the number $$\frac{(x + y)^2}{x^3 + xy^2- x^2y -y^3}$$ is not an integer.

Let $P$ be a polynomial with real coefficients such that $P(x) > 0$ if $x > 0$. Prove that there exist polynomials $Q$ and $R$ with nonnegative coefficients such that $P(x) = \frac{Q(x)}{R(x)}$ if $x > 0.$

Find all pairs $(a, b)$ of positive rational numbers such that $$\sqrt{a}+\sqrt{b} = \sqrt{2+\sqrt{3}}.$$

Without using tables, find the exact value of the product: \[P = \prod^7_{k=1} \cos \left(\frac{k \pi}{15} \right).\]

Find the minimum positive integer $k$ such that there exists a function $f$ from the set $\Bbb{Z}$ of all integers to $\{1, 2, \ldots k\}$ with the property that $f(x) \neq f(y)$ whenever $|x-y| \in \{5, 7, 12\}$.

A sequence of positive real numbers $a_1, a_2, \dots$ is called $\textit{phine}$ if it satisfies $$a_{n+2}=\frac{a_{n+1}+a_{n-1}}{a_n},$$ for all $n\geq2$. Is there a $\textit{phine}$ sequence such that, for every real number $r$, there is some $n$ for which $a_n>r$?

Suppose that the function $f: Z \to Z$ can be written in the form $f = g_1+...+g_k$ , where $g_1,. . . , g_k: Z \to R$ are real-valued periodic functions, with period $a_1,...,a_k$. Does it follow that f can be written in the form $f = h_1 +. . + h_k$ , where $h_1,. . . , h_k: Z \to Z$ are periodic functions with integer values, also with period $a_1,...,a_k$?

There exist two triples of real numbers $(a,b,c)$ such that $a-\frac{1}{b}, b-\frac{1}{c}, c-\frac{1}{a}$ are the roots to the cubic equation $x^3-5x^2-15x+3$ listed in increasing order. Denote those $(a_1, b_1, c_1)$ and $(a_2, b_2, c_2)$. If $a_1$, $b_1$, and $c_1$ are the roots to monic cubic polynomial $f$ and $a_2, b_2$, and $c_2$ are the roots to monic cubic polynomial $g$, find $f(0)^3+g(0)^3$