Alice has a deck of $36$ cards, $4$ suits of $9$ cards each. She picks any $18$ cards and gives the rest to Bob. Now each turn Alice picks any of her cards and lays it face-up onto the table, then Bob similarly picks any of his cards and lays it face-up onto the table. If this pair of cards has the same suit or the same value, Bob gains a point. What is the maximum number of points he can guarantee regardless of Alice’s actions? Mikhail Evdokimov

In how many ways every unit square of a $2018$ x $2018$ board can be colored in red or white such that number of red unit squares in any two rows are distinct and number of red squares in any two columns are distinct.

We have “bricks” made in the following way: we take a unit cube and glue to three of its faces which have a common vertex three more cubes in such a way that the faces glued together coincide. Is it possible to construct from these bricks an $11 \times 12 \times 13$ box? (A Andjans, Riga )

There is a football championship with $6$ teams involved, such that for any $2$ teams $A$ and $B$, $A$ plays with $B$ and $B$ plays with $A$ ($2$ such games are distinct). After every match, the winning teams gains $3$ points, the loosing team gains $0$ points and if there is a draw, both teams gain $1$ point each.\\ \\ In the end, the team standing on the last place has $12$ points and there are no $2$ teams that scored the same amount of points.\\ \\ For all the remaining teams, find their final scores and provide an example with the outcomes of all matches for at least one of the possible final situations. $\textit{(Andrei Bâra)}$

In a handbook of plants each plant is characterized by $100$ attributes (each attribute may either be present in a plant or not). Two plants are called [i]dissimilar [/i] if they differ by no less than $51$ attributes. (a) Prove that the handbook cannot describe more than $50$ pair-wise dissimilar plants. (b) Can it describe $50$ pairwise dissimilar plants? (Dima Tereshin)

Some time ago, on a radio program, a baker announced a special promotion in the purchase of two stuffed cakes. Each cake could contain up to five fillings of which had in the pastry. On the show, a lady said there were $1,048,576$ different possibilities to choose the two stuffed cakes. How many different fillings did the pastry chef have?

Consider the following two person game. A number of pebbles are situated on the table. Two players make their moves alternately. A move consists of taking off the table $x$ pebbles where $x$ is the square of any positive integer. The player who is unable to make a move loses. Prove that there are infinitely many initial situations in which the second player can win no matter how his opponent plays.

[b]p1.[/b] The total cost of $1$ football, $3$ tennis balls and $7$ golf balls is $\$14$ , while that of $1$ football, $4$ tennis balls and $10$ golf balls is $\$17$.If one has $\$20$ to spend, is this sufficient to buy a) $3$ footballs and $2$ tennis balls? b) $2$ footballs and $3$ tennis balls? [b]p2.[/b] Let $\overline{AB}$ and $\overline{CD}$ be two chords in a circle intersecting at a point $P$ (inside the circle). a) Prove that $AP \cdot PB = CP\cdot PD$. b) If $\overline{AB}$ is perpendicular to $\overline{CD}$ and the length of $\overline{AP}$ is $2$, the length of $\overline{PB}$ is $6$, and the length of $\overline{PD}$ is $3$, find the radius of the circle. [b]p3.[/b] A polynomial $P(x)$ of degree greater than one has the remainder $2$ when divided by $x-2$ and the remainder $3$ when divided by $x-3$. Find the remainder when $P(x)$ is divided by $x^2-5x+6$. [b]p4.[/b] Let $x_1= 2$ and $x_{n+1}=x_n+ (3n+2)$ for all $n$ greater than or equal to one. a) Find a formula expressing $x_n$ as a function of$ n$. b) Prove your result. [b]p5.[/b] The point $M$ is the midpoint of side $\overline{BC}$ of a triangle $ABC$. a) Prove that $AM \le \frac12 AB + \frac12 AC$. b) A fly takes off from a certain point and flies a total distance of $4$ meters, returning to the starting point. Explain why the fly never gets outside of some sphere with a radius of one meter. PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

[b]p1.[/b] If $x + z = v$, $w + z = 2v$, $z - w = 2y$, and $y \ne 0$, compute the value of $$\left(x + y +\frac{x}{y} \right)^{101}.$$ [b]p2. [/b]Every minute, a snail picks one cardinal direction (either north, south, east, or west) with equal probability and moves one inch in that direction. What is the probability that after four minutes the snail is more than three inches away from where it started? [b]p3.[/b] What is the probability that a point chosen randomly from the interior of a cube is closer to the cube’s center than it is to any of the cube’s eight vertices? [b]p4.[/b] Let $ABCD$ be a rectangle where $AB = 4$ and $BC = 3$. Inscribe circles within triangles $ABC$ and $ACD$. What is the distance between the centers of these two circles? [b]p5.[/b] $C$ is a circle centered at the origin that is tangent to the line $x - y\sqrt3 = 4$. Find the radius of $C$. [b]p6.[/b] I have a fair $100$-sided die that has the numbers $ 1$ through $100$ on its sides. What is the probability that if I roll this die three times that the number on the first roll will be greater than or equal to the sum of the two numbers on the second and third rolls? [b]p7. [/b] List all solutions $(x, y, z)$ of the following system of equations with x, y, and z positive real numbers: $$x^2 + y^2 = 16$$ $$x^2 + z^2 = 4 + xz$$ $$y^2 + z^2 = 4 + yz\sqrt3$$ [b]p8.[/b] $A_1A_2A_3A_4A_5A_6A_7$ is a regular heptagon ($7$ sided-figure) centered at the origin where $A_1 = (\sqrt[91]{6}, 0)$. $B_1B_2B_3... B_{13}$ is a regular triskaidecagon ($13$ sided-figure) centered at the origin where $B_1 =(0,\sqrt[91]{41})$. Compute the product of all lengths $A_iB_j$ , where $i$ ranges between $1$ and $7$, inclusive, and $j$ ranges between $1$ and $13$, inclusive. [b]p9.[/b] How many three-digit integers are there such that one digit of the integer is exactly two times a digit of the integer that is in a different place than the first? (For example, $100$, $122$, and $124$ should be included in the count, but $42$ and $130$ should not.) [b]p10.[/b] Let $\alpha$ and $\beta$ be the solutions of the quadratic equation $$x^2 - 1154x + 1 = 0.$$ Find $\sqrt[4]{\alpha}+\sqrt[4]{\beta}$. PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Alex Lishkov is trying to guess sequence of $2009$ random ternary digits ($0, 1$, or $2$). After he guesses each digit, he finds out whether he was right or not. If he guesses incorrectly, and $k$ was the correct answer, then an oracle tells him what the next $k$ digits will be. Being Bulgarian, Lishkov plays to maximize the expected number of digits guessed correctly. Let $P_n$ be the probability that Lishkov guesses the nth digit correctly. Find $P_{2009}$. Write your answer in the form $x + yRe(\rho^k)$, where $x$ and $y$ are rational, $\rho$ is complex, and $k$ is a positive integer

In the $25$ squares of a $5 \times 5$ square, zeros are initially written. in the every minute Ionel chooses two squares with a common side. If they are written in them the numbers $a$ and $b$, then he writes instead the numbers $a + 1$ and $b + 1$ or $a - 1$ and $b - 1$. Over time he noticed that the sums of the numbers in each line were equal, as well as the sums of the numbers in each column are equal. Prove that this observation was made after an even number of minutes.

[b]p1.[/b] Fluffy the Dog is an extremely fluffy dog. Because of his extreme fluffiness, children always love petting Fluffy anywhere. Given that Fluffy likes being petted $1/4$ of the time, out of $120$ random people who each pet Fluffy once, what is the expected number of times Fluffy will enjoy being petted? [b]p2.[/b] Andy thinks of four numbers $27$, $81$, $36$, and $41$ and whispers the numbers to his classmate Cynthia. For each number she hears, Cynthia writes down every factor of that number on the whiteboard. What is the sum of all the different numbers that are on the whiteboard? (Don't include the same number in your sum more than once) [b]p3.[/b] Charles wants to increase the area his square garden in his backyard. He increases the length of his garden by $2$ and increases the width of his garden by $3$. If the new area of his garden is $182$, then what was the original area of his garden? [b]p4.[/b] Antonio is trying to arrange his flute ensemble into an array. However, when he arranges his players into rows of $6$, there are $2$ flute players left over. When he arranges his players into rows of $13$, there are $10$ flute players left over. What is the smallest possible number of flute players in his ensemble such that this number has three prime factors? [b]p5.[/b] On the AMC $9$ (Acton Math Competition $9$), $5$ points are given for a correct answer, $2$ points are given for a blank answer and $0$ points are given for an incorrect answer. How many possible scores are there on the AMC $9$, a $15$ problem contest? [b]p6.[/b] Charlie Puth produced three albums this year in the form of CD's. One CD was circular, the second CD was in the shape of a square, and the final one was in the shape of a regular hexagon. When his producer circumscribed a circle around each shape, he noticed that each time, the circumscribed circle had a radius of $10$. The total area occupied by $1$ of each of the different types of CDs can be expressed in the form $a + b\pi + c\sqrt{d}$ where $d$ is not divisible by the square of any prime. Find $a + b + c + d$. [b]p7.[/b] You are picking blueberries and strawberries to bring home. Each bushel of blueberries earns you $10$ dollars and each bushel of strawberries earns you $8$ dollars. However your cart can only fit $24$ bushels total and has a weight limit of $100$ lbs. If a bushel of blueberries weighs $8$ lbs and each bushel of strawberries weighs $6$ lbs, what is your maximum profit. (You can only pick an integer number of bushels) [b]p8.[/b] The number $$\sqrt{2218 + 144\sqrt{35} + 176\sqrt{55} + 198\sqrt{77}}$$ can be expressed in the form $a\sqrt5 + b\sqrt7 + c\sqrt{11}$ for positive integers $a, b, c$. Find $abc$. [b]p9.[/b] Let $(x, y)$ be a point such that no circle passes through the three points $(9,15)$, $(12, 20)$, $(x, y)$, and no circle passes through the points $(0, 17)$, $(16, 19)$, $(x, y)$. Given that $x - y = -\frac{p}{q}$ for relatively prime positive integers $p$, $q$, Find $p + q$. [b]p10.[/b] How many ways can Alfred, Betty, Catherine, David, Emily and Fred sit around a $6$ person table if no more than three consecutive people can be in alphabetical order (clockwise)? PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

What is the largest number of parts into which $n$ planes can divide space? We assume that the set of planes is non-degenerate in the sense that any three planes intersect in one point and no four planes have a common point (and for n=2 it is necessary to require that the planes are not parallel).

A teacher and her 30 students play a game on an infinite cell grid. The teacher starts first, then each of the 30 students makes a move, then the teacher and so on. On one move the person can color one unit segment on the grid. A segment cannot be colored twice. The teacher wins if, after the move of one of the 31 players, there is a $1\times 2$ or $2\times 1$ rectangle , such that each segment from it's border is colored, but the segment between the two adjacent squares isn't colored. Prove that the teacher can win.

Prove that among the vertices of any convex nonagon, three can be found forming an obtuse triangle, none of whose sides coincide with the sides of the nonagon. [i] Proposed by A. Yuran [/i]

Let $n \geq 2$ be an integer. There are $n$ distinct circles in general position, that is, any two of them meet in two distinct points and there are no three of them meeting at one point. Those circles divide the plane in limited regions by circular edges, that meet at vertices (note that each circle have exactly $2n-2$ vertices). For each circle, temporarily color its vertices alternately black and white (note that, doing this, each vertex is colored twice, one for each circle passing through it). If the two temporarily colouring of a vertex coincide, this vertex is definitely colored with this common color; otherwise, it will be colored with gray. Show that if a circle has more than $n-2 + \sqrt{n-2}$ gray points, all vertices of some region are grey. Observation: In this problem, a region cannot contain vertices or circular edges on its interior. Also, the outer region of all circles also counts as a region.

Let $g(k)$ be the number of partitions of a $k$-element set $M$, i.e., the number of families $\{ A_1,A_2,\ldots ,A_s\}$ of nonempty subsets of $M$ such that $A_i\cap A_j=\emptyset$ for $i\not= j$ and $\bigcup_{i=1}^n A_i=M$. Prove that, for every $n$, \[n^n\le g(2n)\le (2n)^{2n}\]

Two ants are moving along the edges of a convex polyhedron. The route of every ant ends in its starting point, so that one ant does not pass through the same point twice along its way. On every face $F$ of the polyhedron are written the number of edges of $F$ belonging to the route of the first ant and the number of edges of $F$ belonging to the route of the second ant. Is there a polyhedron and a pair of routes described as above, such that only one face contains a pair of distinct numbers? [i]Proposed by Nikolai Beluhov[/i]

For dessert, Melinda eats a spherical scoop of ice cream with diameter $2$ inches. She prefers to eat her ice cream in cube-like shapes, however. She has a special machine which, given a sphere placed in space, cuts it through the planes $x = n$, $y = n$, and $z = n$ for every integer $n$ (not necessarily positive). Melinda centers the scoop of ice cream uniformly at random inside the cube $0 \le x, y,z \le 1$, and then cuts it into pieces using her machine. What is the expected number of pieces she cuts the ice cream into?

In the popular game of Minesweeper, some fields of an $a \times b$ board are marked with a mine and on all the remaining fields the number of adjacent fields that contain a mine is recorded. Two fields are considered adjacent if they share a common vertex. For which $k \in \{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8\}$ is it possible for some $a$ and $b$ , $ab > 2021$, to create a board whose fields are covered in mines, except for $2021$ fields who are all marked with $k$?

We want to cover a rectangular $5 \times 137$ with the following figures, prove that this is impossible. \[\text{Squars are the same and all are } \Huge{1 \times 1}\] [asy] import graph; size(400); real lsf = 0.5; pen dp = linewidth(0.7) + fontsize(10); defaultpen(dp); pen ds = black; pen xdxdff = rgb(0.49,0.49,1); draw((2,4)--(0,4),linewidth(2pt)); draw((0,4)--(0,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((0,0)--(2,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((2,0)--(2,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((2,1)--(0,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((1,0)--(1,4),linewidth(2pt)); draw((2,4)--(2,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((2,3)--(0,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((0,2)--(1,2),linewidth(2pt)); label("(1)", (0.56,-1.54), SE*lsf); draw((4,2)--(4,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((7,2)--(7,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((4,2)--(7,2),linewidth(2pt)); draw((4,1)--(7,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((6,0)--(6,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((5,3)--(5,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((5,0)--(6,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((5,3)--(6,3),linewidth(2pt)); label("(2)", (5.13,-1.46), SE*lsf); draw((9,0)--(9,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((10,3)--(10,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((12,3)--(12,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((11,0)--(11,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((9,2)--(12,2),linewidth(2pt)); draw((12,1)--(9,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((9,3)--(10,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((11,3)--(12,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((12,0)--(11,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((9,0)--(10,0),linewidth(2pt)); label("(3)", (10.08,-1.48), SE*lsf); draw((14,1)--(17,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((15,2)--(17,2),linewidth(2pt)); draw((15,2)--(15,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((15,0)--(14,0)); draw((14,1)--(14,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((16,2)--(16,0),linewidth(2pt)); label("(4)", (15.22,-1.5), SE*lsf); draw((14,0)--(16,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((17,2)--(17,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((19,3)--(19,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((20,3)--(20,0),linewidth(2pt)); draw((20,3)--(19,3),linewidth(2pt)); draw((19,2)--(20,2),linewidth(2pt)); draw((19,1)--(20,1),linewidth(2pt)); draw((20,0)--(19,0),linewidth(2pt)); label("(5)", (19.11,-1.5), SE*lsf); dot((0,0),ds); dot((0,1),ds); dot((0,2),ds); dot((0,3),ds); dot((0,4),ds); dot((1,4),ds); dot((2,4),ds); dot((2,3),ds); dot((1,3),ds); dot((1,2),ds); dot((1,1),ds); dot((2,1),ds); dot((2,0),ds); dot((1,0),ds); dot((5,0),ds); dot((6,0),ds); dot((5,1),ds); dot((6,1),ds); dot((5,2),ds); dot((6,2),ds); dot((5,3),ds); dot((6,3),ds); dot((7,2),ds); dot((7,1),ds); dot((4,1),ds); dot((4,2),ds); dot((9,0),ds); dot((9,1),ds); dot((9,2),ds); dot((9,3),ds); dot((10,0),ds); dot((11,0),ds); dot((12,0),ds); dot((10,1),ds); dot((10,2),ds); dot((10,3),ds); dot((11,1),ds); dot((11,2),ds); dot((11,3),ds); dot((12,1),ds); dot((12,2),ds); dot((12,3),ds); dot((14,0),ds); dot((15,0),ds); dot((16,0),ds); dot((15,1),ds); dot((14,1),ds); dot((16,1),ds); dot((15,2),ds); dot((16,2),ds); dot((17,2),ds); dot((17,1),ds); dot((19,0),ds); dot((20,0),ds); dot((19,1),ds); dot((20,1),ds); dot((19,2),ds); dot((20,2),ds); dot((19,3),ds); dot((20,3),ds); clip((-0.41,-10.15)--(-0.41,8.08)--(21.25,8.08)--(21.25,-10.15)--cycle); [/asy]

The localities $P_1, P_2, \dots, P_{1983}$ are served by ten international airlines $A_1,A_2, \dots , A_{10}$. It is noticed that there is direct service (without stops) between any two of these localities and that all airline schedules offer round-trip flights. Prove that at least one of the airlines can offer a round trip with an odd number of landings.

[b]Problem 2[/b] : $k$ number of unit squares selected from a $99 \times 99$ square grid are coloured using five colours Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Black such that each colour appears the same number of times and on each row and on each column there are no differently coloured unit squares. Find the maximum possible value of $k$.

In a room there are nine men. Among every three of them there are two mutually acquainted. Prove that some four of them are mutually acquainted.

Are there convex $n$-gonal ($n \ge 4$) and triangular pyramids such that the four trihedral angles of the $n$-gonal pyramid are equal trihedral angles of a triangular pyramid? [hide=original wording] Существуют ли выпуклая n-угольная (n>= 4) и треугольная пирамиды такие, что четыре трехгранных угла n-угольной пирамиды равны трехгранным углам треугольной пирамиды?[/hide]