Let $S$ be a set of size $11$. A random $12$-tuple $(s_1, s_2, . . . , s_{12})$ of elements of $S$ is chosen uniformly at random. Moreover, let $\pi : S \to S$ be a permutation of $S$ chosen uniformly at random. The probability that $s_{i+1}\ne \pi (s_i)$ for all $1 \le i \le 12$ (where $s_{13} = s_1$) can be written as $\frac{a}{b}$ where $a$ and $b$ are relatively prime positive integers. Compute $a$.

There are $n{}$ stones in a heap. Two players play the game by alternatively taking either 1 stone from the heap or a prime number of stones which divides the current number of stones in the heap. The player who takes the last stone wins. For which $n{}$ does the first player have a strategy so that he wins no matter how the other player plays? [i]Fedor Ivlev[/i]

[b]p1.[/b] Twelve people, three of whom are in the Mafia and one of whom is a police inspector, randomly sit around a circular table. What is the probability that the inspector ends up sitting next to at least one of the Mafia? [b]p2.[/b] Of the positive integers between $1$ and $1000$, inclusive, how many of them contain neither the digit “$4$” nor the digit “$7$”? [b]p3.[/b] You are really bored one day and decide to invent a variation of chess. In your variation, you create a new piece called the “krook,” which, on any given turn, can move either one square up or down, or one square left or right. If you have a krook at the bottom-left corner of the chessboard, how many different ways can the krook reach the top-right corner of the chessboard in exactly $17$ moves? [b]p4.[/b] Let $p$ be a prime number. What is the smallest positive integer that has exactly $p$ different positive integer divisors? Write your answer as a formula in terms of $p$. [b]p5.[/b] You make the square $\{(x, y)| - 5 \le x \le 5, -5 \le y \le 5\}$ into a dartboard as follows: (i) If a player throws a dart and its distance from the origin is less than one unit, then the player gets $10$ points. (ii) If a player throws a dart and its distance from the origin is between one and three units, inclusive, then the player gets awarded a number of points equal to the number of the quadrant that the dart landed on. (The player receives no points for a dart that lands on the coordinate axes in this case.) (iii) If a player throws a dart and its distance from the origin is greater than three units, then the player gets $0$ points. If a person throws three darts and each hits the board randomly (i.e with uniform distribution), what is the expected value of the score that they will receive? [b]p6.[/b] Teddy works at Please Forget Meat, a contemporary vegetarian pizza chain in the city of Gridtown, as a deliveryman. Please Forget Meat (PFM) has two convenient locations, marked with “$X$” and “$Y$ ” on the street map of Gridtown shown below. Teddy, who is currently at $X$, needs to deliver an eggplant pizza to $\nabla$ en route to $Y$ , where he is urgently needed. There is currently construction taking place at $A$, $B$, and $C$, so those three intersections will be completely impassable. How many ways can Teddy get from $X$ to $Y$ while staying on the roads (Traffic tickets are expensive!), not taking paths that are longer than necessary (Gas is expensive!), and that let him pass through $\nabla$ (Losing a job is expensive!)? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/e/0/d4952e923dc97596ad354ed770e80f979740bc.png[/img] [b]p7.[/b] $x, y$, and $z$ are positive real numbers that satisfy the following three equations: $$x +\frac{1}{y}= 4 \,\,\,\,\, y +\frac{1}{z}= 1\,\,\,\,\, z +\frac{1}{x}=\frac73.$$ Compute $xyz$. [b]p8.[/b] Alan, Ben, and Catherine will all start working at the Duke University Math Department on January $1$st, $2009$. Alan’s work schedule is on a four-day cycle; he starts by working for three days and then takes one day off. Ben’s work schedule is on a seven-day cycle; he starts by working for five days and then takes two days off. Catherine’s work schedule is on a ten-day cycle; she starts by working for seven days and then takes three days off. On how many days in $2009$ will none of the three be working? [b]p9.[/b] $x$ and $y$ are complex numbers such that $x^3 + y^3 = -16$ and $(x + y)^2 = xy$. What is the value of $|x + y|$? [b]p10.[/b] Call a four-digit number “well-meaning” if (1) its second digit is the mean of its first and its third digits and (2) its third digit is the mean of its second and fourth digits. How many well-meaning four-digit numbers are there? (For a four-digit number, its first digit is its thousands [leftmost] digit and its fourth digit is its units [rightmost] digit. Also, four-digit numbers cannot have “$0$” as their first digit.) [b]p11.[/b] Suppose that $\theta$ is a real number such that $\sum^{\infty}{k=2} \sin \left(2^k\theta \right)$ is well-defined and equal to the real number $a$. Compute: $$\sum^{\infty}{k=0} \left(\cot^3 \left(2^k\theta \right)-\cot \left(2^k\theta \right) \right) \sin^4 \left(2^k\theta \right).$$ Write your answer as a formula in terms of $a$. [b]p12.[/b] You have $13$ loaded coins; the probability that they come up as heads are $\cos\left( \frac{0\pi}{24 }\right)$,$ \cos\left( \frac{1\pi}{24 }\right)$, $\cos\left( \frac{2\pi}{24 }\right)$, $...$, $\cos\left( \frac{11\pi}{24 }\right)$ and $\cos\left( \frac{12\pi}{24 }\right)$, respectively. You throw all $13$ of these coins in the air at once. What is the probability that an even number of them come up as heads? [b]p13.[/b] Three married couples sit down on a long bench together in random order. What is the probability that none of the husbands sit next to their respective wives? [b]p14.[/b] What is the smallest positive integer that has at least $25$ different positive divisors? [b]p15.[/b] Let $A_1$ be any three-element set, $A_2 = \{\emptyset\}$, and $A_3 = \emptyset$. For each $i \in \{1, 2, 3\}$, let: (i) $B_i = \{\emptyset,A_i\}$, (ii) $C_i$ be the set of all subsets of $B_i$, (iii) $D_i = B_i \cup C_i$, and (iv) $k_i$ be the number of different elements in $D_i$. Compute $k_1k_2k_3$. PS. You had better use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

For each five distinct variables from the set $x_1,..., x_{10}$ there is a single card on which their product is written. Peter and Basil play the following game. At each move, each player chooses a card, starting with Peter. When all cards have been taken, Basil assigns values to the variables as he wants, so that $0 \le x_1 \le ... \le x_10$. Can Basil ensure that the sum of the products on his cards is greater than the sum of the products on Peter's cards? (Ilya Bogdanov)

The freshman class of a school consists of $229$ boys and $271$ girls, and is divided into $10$ rooms of $50$ students each, the students in each room are numbered from $1$ to $50$. The physical education teacher wants to select a relay running team consisting of $1$ boy and $3$ girls or $1$ girl and $3$ boys, so that the four students must be two pairs of students with the same number from two rooms. Show that the number of possible teams is odd.

Each point of a circle is painted in one of the $ N$ colors ($N \geq 2$). Prove that there exists an inscribed trapezoid such that all its vertices are painted the same color.

Determine the least positive integer $n$ with the following property – for every 3-coloring of numbers $1,2,\ldots,n$ there are two (different) numbers $a,b$ of the same color such that $|a-b|$ is a perfect square.

Let $n \geq 2$ be an integer. Find the smallest positive integer $m$ for which the following holds: given $n$ points in the plane, no three on a line, there are $m$ lines such that no line passes through any of the given points, and for all points $X \neq Y$ there is a line with respect to which $X$ and $Y$ lie on opposite sides

If we write the sequence $\text{AAABABBB}$ along the perimeter of a circle, then every word of the length $3$ consisting of letters $A$ and $B$ (i.e. $\text{AAA}$, $\text{AAB}$, $\text{ABA}$, $\text{BAB}$, $\text{ABB}$, $\text{BBB}$, $\text{BBA}$, $\text{BAA}$) occurs exactly once on the perimeter. Decide whether it is possible to write a sequence of letters from a $k$-element alphabet along the perimeter of a circle in such a way that every word of the length $l$ (i.e. an ordered $l$-tuple of letters) occurs exactly once on the perimeter.

We color the numbers $1, 2, 3,....,20$ with two colors white and black in such a way that both colors are used. Find the number of ways, we can perform this coloring if the product of white numbers and the product of black numbers have greatest common divisor equal to $1$.

There are $100$ red, $100$ yellow and $100$ green sticks. One can construct a triangle using any three sticks all of different colours (one red, one yellow and one green). Prove that there is a colour such that one can construct a triangle using any three sticks of this colour.

In an EGMO exam, there are three exercises, each of which can yield a number of points between $0$ and $7$. Show that, among the $49$ participants, one can always find two such that the first in each of the three tasks was at least as good as the other.

Let $k$ be a positive integer. An arrangement of finitely many open intervals in $R$ is called [i]good [/i] if for any of the intervals the number of other intervals which intersect with it is a nonzero multiple of $k$. Find the maximum positive integer $n$ (as a function of $k$) for which there is no good arrangement with $n$ intervals

A mathematics competition had $9$ easy and $6$ difficult problems. Each of the participants in the competition solved $14$ of the $15$ problems. For each pair, consisting of an easy and a difficult problem, the number of participants who solved both those problems was recorded. The sum of these recorded numbers was $459$. How many participants were there?

The numbers $1,2,\ldots,100$ are written in the cells of a $10\times 10$ table, each number is written once. In one move, Nazar may interchange numbers in any two cells. Prove that he may get a table where the sum of the numbers in every two adjacent (by side) cells is composite after at most $35$ such moves. [i]N. Agakhanov[/i]

Pinocchio claims that he can take some non-right-angled triangles , all of which are similar to one another and some of which may be congruent to one another, and put them together to form a rectangle. Is Pinocchio lying? (A Fedotov)

Find the smallest positive integer $n$ such that it is possible to paint each of the $64$ squares of an $8 \times 8$ board of one of $n$ colors so that any four squares that form an $L$ as in the following figure (or congruent figures obtained through rotations and/or reflections) have different colors. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/a/2/c8049b1be8f37657c058949e11faf041856da4.png[/img]

A light has been placed on every lattice point (point with integer coordinates) on the (infinite) 2$D$ plane. Dene the Chebyshev distance between points $(x_1,y_1)$ and $(x_2, y_2)$ to be $\ max (|x_1 - x_2|, |y_1 -y_2|)$. Each light is turned on with probability $\frac{1}{2^{d/2}}$ , where $d$ is the Chebyshev distance from that point to the origin. What is expected number of lights that have all their directly adjacent lights turned on? (Adjacent points being points such that $|x_1-x_2|+|y_1- y_2| =1$.)

There are$ 1$ cm long bars with a number$ 1$, $2$ or $3$ written on each one from them. There is an unlimited supply of bars with each number. Two triangles formed by three bars are considered different if none of them can be built with the bars of the other triangle. (a) How many different triangles formed by three bars are possible? (b) An equilateral triangle of side length $3$ cm is formed using $18$ bars, , divided into $9$ equilateral triangles, different by pairs, $1$ cm long on each side. Find the largest sum possible from the numbers written on the $9$ bars of the border of the big triangle. [center][img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/1/1/c2f7edeea3c70ba4689d7b12fe8ac8be72f115.png[/img][/center]

Find the largest natural number $n$ such that any set of $n$ tetraminoes, each of which is one of the four shapes in the picture, can be placed without overlapping in a $20 \times 20$ table (no tetramino extends beyond the borders of the table), such that each tetramino covers exactly 4 cells of the 20x20 table. An individual tetramino is allowed to turn and flip at will. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/b/9/0dddb25c2aa07536b711ded8363679e47972d6.png[/img]

Elmo has 2023 cookie jars, all initially empty. Every day, he chooses two distinct jars and places a cookie in each. Every night, Cookie Monster finds a jar with the most cookies and eats all of them. If this process continues indefinitely, what is the maximum possible number of cookies that the Cookie Monster could eat in one night? [i]Proposed by Espen Slettnes[/i]

An equilateral triangle $ABC$ is divided into $100$ congruent equilateral triangles. What is the greatest number of vertices of small triangles that can be chosen so that no two of them lie on a line that is parallel to any of the sides of the triangle $ABC$?

A rectangle $ D$ is partitioned in several ($ \ge2$) rectangles with sides parallel to those of $ D$. Given that any line parallel to one of the sides of $ D$, and having common points with the interior of $ D$, also has common interior points with the interior of at least one rectangle of the partition; prove that there is at least one rectangle of the partition having no common points with $ D$'s boundary. [i]Author: Kei Irie, Japan[/i]

Natural $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime. The $[0,1]$ is divided onto $(p+q)$ equal segments. Prove that every segment except two marginal contain exactly one from the $(p+q-2)$ numbers $$\{1/p, 2/p, ... , (p-1)/p, 1/q, 2/q, ... , (q-1)/q\}$$

An $n \times n$ array of letters is such that no two rows are the same. Show that it must be possible to omit a column, so that the remaining table has no two rows the same.