For every permutation $ \tau$ of $ 1, 2, \ldots, 10$, $ \tau \equal{} (x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_{10})$, define $ S(\tau) \equal{} \sum_{k \equal{} 1}^{10} |2x_k \minus{} 3x_{k \minus{} 1}|$. Let $ x_{11} \equal{} x_1$. Find [b]I.[/b] The maximum and minimum values of $ S(\tau)$. [b]II.[/b] The number of $ \tau$ which lets $ S(\tau)$ attain its maximum. [b]III.[/b] The number of $ \tau$ which lets $ S(\tau)$ attain its minimum.

Suppose we have $2013$ piles of coins, with the $i$th pile containing exactly $i$ coins. We wish to remove the coins in a series of steps. In each step, we are allowed to take away coins from as many piles as we wish, but we have to take the same number of coins from each pile. We cannot take away more coins than a pile actually has. What is the minimum number of steps we have to take?

In Wonderland, the towns are connected by roads, and whenever there is a direct road between two towns there is also a route between these two towns that does not use that road. (There is at most one direct road between any two towns.) The Queen of Hearts ordered the Spades to provide a list of all ”even” subsystems of the system of roads, that is, systems formed by subsets of the set of roads, where each town is connected to an even number of roads (possibly none). For each such subsystem they should list its roads. If there are totally $n$ roads in Wonderland and $x$ subsystems on the Spades’ list, what is the number of roads on their list when each road is counted as many times as it is listed?

Each face of a cube has been divided into four equal quarters and each quarter is painted with one of three available colours. Quarters with common sides are painted with different colours . Prove that each of the available colours was used in painting $8$ quarters.

The game of circulate is played with a deck of $kn$ cards each with a number in $1,2,\ldots,n$ such that there are $k$ cards with each number. First, $n$ piles numbered $1,2,\ldots,n$ of $k$ cards each are dealt out face down. The player then flips over a card from pile $1$, places that card face up at the bottom of the pile, then next flips over a card from the pile whose number matches the number on the card just flipped. The player repeats this until he reaches a pile in which every card has already been flipped and wins if at that point every card has been flipped. Hamster has grown tired of losing every time, so he decides to cheat. He looks at the piles beforehand and rearranges the $k$ cards in each pile as he pleases. When can Hamster perform this procedure such that he will win the game? [i]Brian Hamrick.[/i]

$2022$ points are arranged in a circle, one of which is colored in black, and others in white. In one operation, The Hedgehog can do one of the following actions: 1) Choose two adjacent points of the same color and flip the color of both of them (white becomes black, black becomes white) 2) Choose two points of opposite colors with exactly one point in between them, and flip the color of both of them Is it possible to achieve a configuration where each point has a color opposite to its initial color with these operations? [i](Proposed by Oleksii Masalitin)[/i]

Let $n>1$ be an integer. A rook stands in one of the cells of an infinite chessboard that is initially all white. Each move of the rook is exactly $n{}$ cells in a single direction, either vertically or horizontally, and causes the $n{}$ cells passed over by the rook to be painted black. After several such moves, without visiting any cell twice, the rook returns to its starting cell, with the resulting black cells forming a closed path. Prove that the number of white cells inside the black path gives a remainder of $1{}$ when divided by $n{}$.

Find the number of self-maps of a set of $ 5 $ elements having the property that the preimage of any element of this set has $ 2 $ elements at most. [i]Adrian Zanoschi[/i]

Alice and Bob play a game on a numbered row of $n \ge 5$ squares. At the beginning a pebble is put on the first square and then the players make consecutive moves; Alice starts. During a move a player is allowed to choose one of the following: [list] [*] move the pebble one square forward; [*] move the pebble four squares forward; [*] move the pebble two squares backwards. [/list] All of the possible moves are only allowed if the pebble stays within the borders of the square row. The player who moves the pebble to the last square (a.k.a $n\text{-th}$) wins. Determine for which values of $n$ each of the players has a winning strategy.

Two players in turn put two or three coins into their own hats (before the game starts, the hats are empty). Each time, after both players made five moves, they exchange hats.The player wins, if after his move his hat contains one hundred or more coins. Which player has a winning strategy?

We are given an $(n^2-1)\times(n^2-1)$ checkered board. A set of $n{}$ cells is called [i]progressive[/i] if the centers of the cells lie on a straight line and form $n-1$ equal intervals. Find the number of progressive sets. [i]Proposed by P. Kozhevnikov[/i]

Let $n$ be a integer and $n \ge 3$, and $T_1T_2...T_n$ is a regular n-gon. Distinct $3$ points $T_i , T_j , T_k$ are chosen randomly. Determine the probability of triangle $T_iT_jT_k$ being an acute triangle.

Alberto and Barbara play the following game. Initially, there are some piles of coins on a table. Each player in turn, starting with Albert, performs one of the two following ways: 1) take a coin from an arbitrary pile; 2) select a pile and divide it into two non-empty piles. The winner is the player who removes the last coin on the table. Determine which player has a winning strategy with respect to the initial state.

A list of positive integers is called good if the maximum element of the list appears exactly once. A sublist is a list formed by one or more consecutive elements of a list. For example, the list $10,34,34,22,30,22$ the sublist $22,30,22$ is good and $10,34,34,22$ is not. A list is very good if all its sublists are good. Find the minimum value of $k$ such that there exists a very good list of length $2019$ with $k$ different values on it.

The country has $n \ge 3$ airports, some pairs of which are connected by bidirectional flights. Every day, the government closes the airport with the strictly highest number of flights going out of it. What is the maximum number of days this can continue? [i]Proposed by Fedir Yudin[/i]

Let $m, n$ be positive integers $(m, n>=2)$. Given an $n$-element set $A$ of integers $(A=\{a_1,a_2,\cdots ,a_n\})$, for each pair of elements $a_i, a_j(j>i)$, we make a difference by $a_j-a_i$. All these $C^2_n$ differences form an ascending sequence called “derived sequence” of set $A$. Let $\bar{A}$ denote the derived sequence of set $A$. Let $\bar{A}(m)$ denote the number of terms divisible by $m$ in $\bar{A}$ . Prove that $\bar{A}(m)\ge \bar{B}(m)$ where $A=\{a_1,a_2,\cdots ,a_n\}$ and $B=\{1,2,\cdots ,n\}$.

Let $A$ be a set consist of finite real numbers,$A_1,A_2,\cdots,A_n$ be nonempty sets of $A$, such that [b](a)[/b] The sum of the elements of $A$ is $0,$ [b](b)[/b] For all $x_i \in A_i(i=1,2,\cdots,n)$,we have $x_1+x_2+\cdots+x_n>0$. Prove that there exist $1\le k\le n,$ and $1\le i_1<i_2<\cdots<i_k\le n$, such that \[|A_{i_1}\bigcup A_{i_2} \bigcup \cdots \bigcup A_{i_k}|<\frac{k}{n}|A|.\] Where $|X|$ denote the numbers of the elements in set $X$.

Given is a graph $G$ of $n+1$ vertices, which is constructed as follows: initially there is only one vertex $v$, and one a move we can add a vertex and connect it to exactly one among the previous vertices. The vertices have non-negative real weights such that $v$ has weight $0$ and each other vertex has a weight not exceeding the avarage weight of its neighbors, increased by $1$. Prove that no weight can exceed $n^2$.

The cube $nxnxn$ consists of $n^3$ unit cubes $1x1x1$, and at least one of these unit cubes is black. Show that we can always cut the cube in $2$ parallelepiped pieces so that each piece contains exactly one black 1x1 square .

To each side of the regular $p$-gon of side length $1$ there is attached a $1 \times k$ rectangle, partitioned into $k$ unit cells, where $k$ and $p$ are given positive integers and p an odd prime. Let $P$ be the resulting nonconvex star-like polygonal figure consisting of $kp + 1$ regions ($kp$ unit cells and the $p$-gon). Each region is to be colored in one of three colors, adjacent regions having different colors. Furthermore, it is required that the colored figure should not have a symmetry axis. In how many ways can this be done?

Prove that an arbitrary triangle can be cut into three polygons, one of which must be an obtuse triangle, so that they can then be folded into a rectangle. (Turning over parts is possible).

Kelvin the Frog and $10$ of his relatives are at a party. Every pair of frogs is either [i]friendly[/i] or [i]unfriendly[/i]. When $3$ pairwise friendly frogs meet up, they will gossip about one another and end up in a [i]fight[/i] (but stay [i]friendly[/i] anyway). When $3$ pairwise unfriendly frogs meet up, they will also end up in a [i]fight[/i]. In all other cases, common ground is found and there is no fight. If all $\binom{11}{3}$ triples of frogs meet up exactly once, what is the minimum possible number of fights?

For a given integer $n\ge3$, let $S_1, S_2,\ldots,S_m$ be distinct three-element subsets of the set $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ such that for each $1\le i,j\le m; i\neq j$ the sets $S_i\cap S_j$ contain exactly one element. Determine the maximal possible value of $m$ for each $n$.

Michel starts with the string HMMT. An operation consists of either replacing an occurrence of H with HM, replacing an occurrence of MM with MOM, or replacing an occurrence of T with MT. For example, the two strings that can be reached after one operation are HMMMT and HMOMT. Compute the number of distinct strings Michel can obtain after exactly $10$ operations.

In a country with $n$ towns, the distance between the towns numbered $i$ and $j$ is denoted by $x_{ij}$. Suppose that the total length of every cyclic route which passes through every town exactly once is the same. Prove that there exist numbers $a_i,b_i$ ($i=1,\ldots,n$) such that $x_{ij}=a_i+b_j$ for all distinct $i,j$.