An arrangement of chips in the squares of $ n\times n$ table is called [i]sparse[/i] if every $ 2\times 2$ square contains at most 3 chips. Serge put chips in some squares of the table (one in a square) and obtained a sparse arrangement. He noted however that if any chip is moved to any free square then the arrangement is no more sparce. For what $ n$ is this possible? [i]Proposed by S. Berlov[/i]

Consider 2009 cards which are lying in sequence on a table. Initially, all cards have their top face white and bottom face black. The cards are enumerated from 1 to 2009. Two players, Amir and Ercole, make alternating moves, with Amir starting. Each move consists of a player choosing a card with the number $k$ such that $k < 1969$ whose top face is white, and then this player turns all cards at positions $k,k+1,\ldots,k+40.$ The last player who can make a legal move wins. (a) Does the game necessarily end? (b) Does there exist a winning strategy for the starting player? [i]Also compare shortlist 2009, combinatorics problem C1.[/i]

Three sergeants and several solders serve in a platoon. The sergeants take turns on duty. The commander has given the following orders: (a) Each day, at least one task must be issued to a soldier. (b) No soldier may have more than two task or receive more than one tasks in a single day. (c) The lists of soldiers receiving tasks for two different days must not be the same. (d) The first sergeant violating any of these orders will be jailed. Can at least one of the sergeants, without conspiring with the others, give tasks according to these rules and avoid being jailed? [i]M. Kulikov[/i]

Let $S = \{1, 2,..., 8\}$. How many ways are there to select two disjoint subsets of $S$?

In a small city there are $n$ bus routes, with $n > 1$, and each route has exactly $4$ stops. If any two routes have exactly one common stop, and each pair of stops belongs to exactly one route, find all possible values of $n$.

Katie has a fair $2019$-sided die with sides labeled $1, 2,..., 2019$. After each roll, she replaces her $n$-sided die with an $(n+1)$-sided die having the $n$ sides of her previous die and an additional side with the number she just rolled. What is the probability that Katie's $2019^{th}$ roll is a $ 2019$?

If $n,p,q \in \mathbb{N}, p<q $ then $${{(p+q)n}\choose{n}} \sum \limits_{k=0}^n (-1)^k {{n}\choose{k}} {{(p+q-1)n}\choose{pn-k}}= {{(p+q)n}\choose{pn}} \sum \limits_{k=0}^{\left [\frac{n}{2} \right ]} (-1)^k {{pn}\choose{k}} {{(q-p)n}\choose{n-2k}} $$

given any 3 distinct points $X,Y,Z$on the integer coordinates of the x-axis,the following operation is allowed:A point say $X$ is reflected over another point say $Y$. Note that after each operation only one among three points is moved. we perform these operations till 2 out of the 3 points coincide. let $N=N(X,Y,Z)$ denote the minimum number of operations before we are forced to stop.(this could happen in different ways). show that there are at most $2^N$coordinates that point $X$ could end up if we are forced to stop after $N$operations

There are $2019$ cities in the country of Balticwayland. Some pairs of cities are connected by non-intersecting bidirectional roads, each road connecting exactly 2 cities. It is known that for every pair of cities $A$ and $B$ it is possible to drive from $A$ to $B$ using at most $2$ roads. There are $62$ cops trying to catch a robber. The cops and robber all know each others’ locations at all times. Each night, the robber can choose to stay in her current city or move to a neighbouring city via a direct road. Each day, each cop has the same choice of staying or moving, and they coordinate their actions. The robber is caught if she is in the same city as a cop at any time. Prove that the cops can always catch the robber

In a table consisting of $2021\times 2021$ unit squares, some unit squares are colored black in such a way that if we place a mouse in the center of any square on the table it can walk in a straight line (up, down, left or right along a column or row) and leave the table without walking on any black square (other than the initial one if it is black). What is the maximum number of squares that can be colored black?

Consider a polynomial $P(x) = \prod^9_{j=1}(x+d_j),$ where $d_1, d_2, \ldots d_9$ are nine distinct integers. Prove that there exists an integer $N,$ such that for all integers $x \geq N$ the number $P(x)$ is divisible by a prime number greater than 20. [i]Proposed by Luxembourg[/i]

In Middle-Earth, nine cities form a $3$ by $3$ grid. The top left city is the capital of Gondor and the bottom right city is the capital of Mordor. How many ways can the remaining cities be divided among the two nations such that all cities in a country can be reached from its capital via the grid-lines without passing through a city of the other country?

We will call one of the cells of a rectangle 11 x 13 “[i]peculiar[/i]” , if after removing it the remaining figure can be cut into squares 2 x 2 and 3 x 3. How many of the 143 cells are “[i]peculiar[/i]”?

Adam has RM2010 in his bank account. He donates RM10 to charity every day. His first donation is on Monday. On what day will he donate his last RM10?

$ 15 $ teams participate in a soccer league. Each team plays each of the remaining teams exactly once. If a team beats another team in a match they receive $ 3 $ points, while the loser receives $ 1 $ point. In the event of a tie, both teams receive $ 2 $ points. When all possible league matches are held, the following can be observed: $\bullet$ No two teams have finished with the same amount of points. $\bullet$ Each team finished the league with at least $ 21 $ points. Let $W$ be the team that finished the league with the highest score. Determine how many points $W$ scored and show that there were at least four ties in the league.

Suppose $n$ coins are available that their mass is unknown. We have a pair of balances and every time we can choose an even number of coins and put half of them on one side of the balance and put another half on the other side, therefore a [i]comparison[/i] will be done. Our aim is determining that the mass of all coins is equal or not. Show that at least $n-1$ [i]comparisons[/i] are required.

Let $A_1A_2A_3A_4A_5A_6A_7A_8$ be convex 8-gon (no three diagonals concruent). The intersection of arbitrary two diagonals will be called "button".Consider the convex quadrilaterals formed by four vertices of $A_1A_2A_3A_4A_5A_6A_7A_8$ and such convex quadrilaterals will be called "sub quadrilaterals".Find the smallest $n$ satisfying: We can color n "button" such that for all $i,k \in\{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8\},i\neq k,s(i,k)$ are the same where $s(i,k)$ denote the number of the "sub quadrilaterals" has $A_i,A_k$ be the vertices and the intersection of two its diagonals is "button".

A square $ABCD$ is divided into $(n - 1)^2$ congruent squares, with sides parallel to the sides of the given square. Consider the grid of all $n^2$ corners obtained in this manner. Determine all integers $n$ for which it is possible to construct a non-degenerate parabola with its axis parallel to one side of the square and that passes through exactly $n$ points of the grid.

[b]p1.[/b] Vivek has three letters to send out. Unfortunately, he forgets which letter is which after sealing the envelopes and before putting on the addresses. He puts the addresses on at random sends out the letters anyways. What are the chances that none of the three recipients get their intended letter? [b]p2.[/b] David is a horrible bowler. Luckily, Logan and Christy let him use bumpers. The bowling lane is $2$ meters wide, and David's ball travels a total distance of $24$ meters. How many times did David's bowling ball hit the bumpers, if he threw it from the middle of the lane at a $60^o$ degree angle to the horizontal? [b]p3.[/b] Find $\gcd \,(212106, 106212)$. [b]p4.[/b] Michael has two fair dice, one six-sided (with sides marked $1$ through $6$) and one eight-sided (with sides marked $1-8$). Michael play a game with Alex: Alex calls out a number, and then Michael rolls the dice. If the sum of the dice is equal to Alex's number, Michael gives Alex the amount of the sum. Otherwise Alex wins nothing. What number should Alex call to maximize his expected gain of money? [b]p5.[/b] Suppose that $x$ is a real number with $\log_5 \sin x + \log_5 \cos x = -1$. Find $$|\sin^2 x \cos x + \cos^2 x \sin x|.$$ [b]p6.[/b] What is the volume of the largest sphere that FIts inside a regular tetrahedron of side length $6$? [b]p7.[/b] An ant is wandering on the edges of a cube. At every second, the ant randomly chooses one of the three edges incident at one vertex and walks along that edge, arriving at the other vertex at the end of the second. What is the probability that the ant is at its starting vertex after exactly $6$ seconds? [b]p8.[/b] Determine the smallest positive integer $k$ such that there exist $m, n$ non-negative integers with $m > 1$ satisfying $$k = 2^{2m+1} - n^2.$$ [b]p9.[/b] For $A,B \subset Z$ with $A,B \ne \emptyset$, define $A + B = \{a + b|a \in A, b \in B\}$. Determine the least $n$ such that there exist sets $A,B$ with $|A| = |B| = n$ and $A + B = \{0, 1, 2,..., 2012\}$. [b]p10.[/b] For positive integers $n \ge 1$, let $\tau (n)$ and $\sigma (n)$ be, respectively, the number of and sum of the positive integer divisors of $n$ (including $1$ and $n$). For example, $\tau (1) = \sigma (1) = 1$ and $\tau (6) = 4$, $\sigma (6) = 12$. Find the number of positive integers $n \le 100$ such that $$\sigma (n) \le (\sqrt{n} - 1)^2 +\tau (n)\sqrt{n}.$$ PS. You had better use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Let there be given a set of $1996$ equal circles in the plane, no two of them having common interior points. Prove that there exists a circle touching at most three other circles.

Determine the polygons with $n$ sides $(n \ge 4)$, not necessarily convex, which satisfy the property that the reflection of every vertex of polygon with respect to every diagonal of the polygon does not fall outside the polygon. [b]Note:[/b] Each segment joining two non-neighboring vertices of the polygon is a diagonal. The reflection is considered with respect to the support line of the diagonal.

Suppose that every integer has been given one of the colors red, blue, green, yellow. Let $x$ and $y$ be odd integers such that $|x| \ne |y|$. Show that there are two integers of the same color whose difference has one of the following values: $x,y,x+y,x-y$.

[u]Round 5[/u] [b]p13.[/b] Two closed disks of radius $\sqrt2$ are drawn centered at the points $(1,0)$ and $(-1, 0)$. Let P be the region belonging to both disks. Two congruent non-intersecting open disks of radius $r$ have all of their points in $P$ . Find the maximum possible value of $r$ . [b]p14.[/b] A rectangle has positive integer side lengths. The sum of the numerical values of its perimeter and area is $2017$. Find the perimeter of the rectangle. [b]p15.[/b] Find all ordered triples of real numbers $(a,b,c)$ which satisfy $$a +b +c = 6$$ $$a \cdot (b +c) = 6$$ $$(a +b) \cdot c = 6$$ [u]Round 6[/u] [b]p16.[/b] A four digit positive integer is called confused if it is written using the digits $2$, $0$, $1$, and $7$ in some order, each exactly one. For example, the numbers $7210$ and $2017$ are confused. Find the sum of all confused numbers. [b]p17.[/b] Suppose $\vartriangle ABC$ is a right triangle with a right angle at $A$. Let $D$ be a point on segment $BC$ such that $\angle BAD = \angle CAD$. Suppose that $AB = 20$ and $AC = 17$. Compute $AD$. [b]p18.[/b] Let $x$ be a real number. Find the minimum possible positive value of $\frac{|x -20|+|x -17|}{x}$. [u]Round 7[/u] [b]p19.[/b] Find the sum of all real numbers $0 < x < 1$ that satisfy $\{2017x\} = \{x\}$. [b]p20.[/b] Let $a_1,a_2, ,,, ,a_{10}$ be real numbers which sum to $20$ and satisfy $\{a_i\} <0.5$ for $1 \le i\le 10$. Find the sum of all possible values of $\sum_{ 1 \le i <j\le 10} \lfloor a_i +a_j \rfloor .$ Here, $\lfloor x \rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer $x_0$ such that $x_0 \le x$ and $\{x\} =x -\lfloor x \rfloor$. [b]p21.[/b] Compute the remainder when $20^{2017}$ is divided by $17$. [u]Round 8[/u] [b]p22.[/b] Let $\vartriangle ABC$ be a triangle with a right angle at $B$. Additionally, letM be the midpoint of $AC$. Suppose the circumcircle of $\vartriangle BCM$ intersects segment $AB$ at a point $P \ne B$. If $CP = 20$ and $BP = 17$, compute $AC$. [b]p23.[/b] Two vertices on a cube are called neighbors if they are distinct endpoints of the same edge. On a cube, how many ways can a nonempty subset $S$ of the vertices be chosen such that for any vertex $v \in S$, at least two of the three neighbors of $v$ are also in $S$? Reflections and rotations are considered distinct. [b]p24.[/b] Let $x$ be a real number such that $x +\sqrt[4]{5-x^4}=2$. Find all possible values of $x\sqrt[4]{5-x^4}$. PS. You should use hide for answers. Rounds 1-4 have been posted [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c3h3158491p28715220]here[/url].and 9-12 [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c3h3162362p28764144]here[/url] Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

You are given $N$ such that $ n \ge 3$. We call a set of $N$ points on a plane acceptable if their abscissae are unique, and each of the points is coloured either red or blue. Let's say that a polynomial $P(x)$ divides a set of acceptable points either if there are no red dots above the graph of $P(x)$, and below, there are no blue dots, or if there are no blue dots above the graph of $P(x)$ and there are no red dots below. Keep in mind, dots of both colors can be present on the graph of $P(x)$ itself. For what least value of k is an arbitrary set of $N$ points divisible by a polynomial of degree $k$?

Does there exist a bijection $f:\mathbb{N}^{+} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}^{+}$, such that there exist a positive integer $k$, and it's possible to have each positive integer colored by one of $k$ chosen colors, such that for any $x \neq y$ , $f(x)+y$ and $f(y)+x$ are not the same color?