Ana and Banana are playing a game. First Ana picks a word, which is defined to be a nonempty sequence of capital English letters. (The word does not need to be a valid English word.) Then Banana picks a nonnegative integer $k$ and challenges Ana to supply a word with exactly $k$ subsequences which are equal to Ana's word. Ana wins if she is able to supply such a word, otherwise she loses. For example, if Ana picks the word "TST", and Banana chooses $k=4$, then Ana can supply the word "TSTST" which has 4 subsequences which are equal to Ana's word. Which words can Ana pick so that she wins no matter what value of $k$ Banana chooses? (The subsequences of a string of length $n$ are the $2^n$ strings which are formed by deleting some of its characters, possibly all or none, while preserving the order of the remaining characters.) [i]Proposed by Kevin Sun

Let $0<c<1$ and $n$ a positive integer. Alice and Bob are playing a game. Bob writes $n$ integers on the board, not all equal. On a player's turn, they erase two numbers from the board and write their arithmetic mean instead. Alice starts and performs at most $cn$ moves. After her, Bob makes moves until there are only two numbers left on the board. Alice wins if these two numbers are different, and otherwise, Bob wins. For which values of $c$ does Alice win for all large enough $n$?

Define the [i]mexth[/i] of \(k\) sets as the \(k\)th smallest positive integer that none of them contain, if it exists. Does there exist a family \(\mathcal F\) of sets of positive integers such that [list] [*]for any nonempty finite subset \(\mathcal G\) of \(\mathcal F\), the mexth of \(\mathcal G\) exists, and [*]for any positive integer \(n\), there is exactly one nonempty finite subset \(\mathcal G\) of \(\mathcal F\) such that \(n\) is the mexth of \(\mathcal G\). [/list] [i]Proposed by Espen Slettnes[/i]

Seventeen cities are served by four airlines. It is noted that there is direct service (without stops) between any two cities 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.

You are given a set of $n$ blocks, each weighing at least $1$; their total weight is $2n$. Prove that for every real number $r$ with $0 \leq r \leq 2n-2$ you can choose a subset of the blocks whose total weight is at least $r$ but at most $r + 2$.

Two white pentagonal pyramids, with side lengths all the same, are glued to each other at their regular pentagon bases. Some of the resulting $10$ faces are colored black. How many rotationally distinguishable colorings may result?

Given is a convex polygon $ P$ with $ n$ vertices. Triangle whose vertices lie on vertices of $ P$ is called [i]good [/i] if all its sides are unit length. Prove that there are at most $ \frac {2n}{3}$ [i]good[/i] triangles. [i]Author: Vyacheslav Yasinskiy, Ukraine[/i]

We are given a cube with edges of length $n$ cm. At our disposal is a long piece of insulating tape of width $1$ cm. It is required to stick this tape to the cube. The tape may freely cross an edge of the cube on to a different face but it must always be parallel to an edge of the cube. It may not overhang the edge of a face or cross over a vertex. How many pieces of the tape are necessary in order to completely cover the cube? (You may assume that $n$ is an integer.) (A Spivak)

In a summer camp about Applied Maths, there are $8m+1$ boys (with $m > 5$) and some girls. Every girl is friend with exactly $3$ boys and for any $2$ boys, there is exactly $1$ girl who is their common friend. Let $n$ be the greatest number of girls that can be chosen from the camp to form a group such that every boy is friend with at most $1$ girl in the group. Prove that $n \geq 2m+1$.

[b]p1.[/b] Prove that the equation $x^6 - 143x^5 - 917x^4 + 51x^3 + 77x^2 + 291x + 1575 = 0$ has no integer solutions. [b]p2.[/b] There are $81$ wheels in a storage marked by their two types, say first and second type. Wheels of the same type weigh equally. Any wheel of the second type is much lighter than a wheel of the first type. It is known that exactly one wheel is marked incorrectly. Show that it can be detected with certainty after four measurements on a balance scale. [b]p3.[/b] Rob and Ann multiplied the numbers from $1$ to $100$ and calculated the sum of digits of this product. For this sum, Rob calculated the sum of its digits as well. Then Ann kept repeating this operation until he got a one-digit number. What was this number? [b]p4.[/b] Rui and Jui take turns placing bishops on the squares of the $ 8\times 8$ chessboard in such a way that bishops cannot attack one another. (In this game, the color of the rooks is irrelevant.) The player who cannot place a rook loses the game. Rui takes the first turn. Who has a winning strategy, and what is it? [b]p5.[/b] The following figure can be cut along sides of small squares into several (more than one) identical shapes. What is the smallest number of such identical shapes you can get? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/8/e/9cd09a04209774dab34bc7f989b79573453f35.png[/img] PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Here $G_{n}$ denotes a simple undirected graph with $n$ vertices, $K_{n}$ denotes the complete graph with $n$ vertices, $K_{n,m}$ the complete bipartite graph whose components have $m$ and $n$ vertices, and $C_{n}$ a circuit with $n$ vertices. The number of edges in the graph $G_{n}$ is denoted $e(G_{n})$. If $n \geq 5$ and $e(G_{n}) \geq \frac{n^{2}}{4}+2$, prove that $G_{n}$ contains two triangles that share exactly one vertex.

There are $26$ cards and each one has a number written on it. There are two with $1$, two with $2$, two with $3$, and so on up to two with $12$ and two with $13$. You have to distribute the $26$ cards in piles so that the following two conditions are met: $\bullet$ If two cards have the same number they are in the same pile. $\bullet$ No pile contains a card whose number is equal to the sum of the numbers of two cards in that same pile. Determine what is the minimum number of stacks to make. Give an example with the distribution of the cards for that number of stacks and justify why it is impossible to have fewer stacks. Clarification: Two squares are [i]neighbors [/i] if they have a common side.

In a $7\times7$ board, some squares are painted red. Let $a$ be the number of rows that have an odd number of red squares and let $b$ be the number of columns that have an odd number of red squares. Find all possible values of $a+b$. For each value found, give a example of how the board can be painted.

There are $1000$ balls of dough $0.38$ and $5000$ balls of dough $0.038$ that must be packed in boxes. A box contains a collection of balls whose total mass is at most $1$. Find the smallest number of boxes that they are needed.

In a chess festival that is held in a school with $2017$ students, each pair of students played at most one match versus each other. In the end, it is seen that for any pair of students which have played a match versus each other, at least one of them has played at most $22$ matches. What is the maximum possible number of matches in this event?

Let $n$ and $\ell$ be integers such that $n \ge 3$ and $1 < \ell < n$. A country has $n$ cities. Between any two cities $A$ and $B$, either there is no flight from $A$ to $B$ and also none from $B$ to $A$, or there is a unique [i]two-way trip[/i] between them. A [i]two-way trip[/i] is a flight from $A$ to $B$ and a flight from $B$ to $A$. There exist two cities such that the least possible number of flights required to travel from one of them to the other is $\ell$. Find the maximum number of two-way trips among the $n$ cities.

Let $n$ to be a positive integer. Given a set $\{ a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_n \} $ of integers, where $a_i \in \{ 0, 1, 2, 3, \ldots, 2^n -1 \},$ $\forall i$, we associate to each of its subsets the sum of its elements; particularly, the empty subset has sum of its elements equal to $0$. If all of these sums have different remainders when divided by $2^n$, we say that $\{ a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_n \} $ is [i]$n$-complete[/i]. For each $n$, find the number of [i]$n$-complete[/i] sets.

In the coordinate plane consider the set $ S$ of all points with integer coordinates. For a positive integer $ k$, two distinct points $A$, $ B\in S$ will be called $ k$-[i]friends[/i] if there is a point $ C\in S$ such that the area of the triangle $ ABC$ is equal to $ k$. A set $ T\subset S$ will be called $ k$-[i]clique[/i] if every two points in $ T$ are $ k$-friends. Find the least positive integer $ k$ for which there exits a $ k$-clique with more than 200 elements. [i]Proposed by Jorge Tipe, Peru[/i]

Suppose that $1000$ students are standing in a circle. Prove that there exists an integer $k$ with $100 \leq k \leq 300$ such that in this circle there exists a contiguous group of $2k$ students, for which the first half contains the same number of girls as the second half. [i]Proposed by Gerhard Wöginger, Austria[/i]

A zig-zag in the plane consists of two parallel half-lines connected by a line segment. Find $z_n$, the maximum number of regions into which $n$ zig-zags can divide the plane. For example, $z_1=2,z_2=12$(see the diagram). Of these $z_n$ regions how many are bounded? [The zig-zags can be as narrow as you please.] Express your answers as polynomials in $n$ of degree not exceeding $2$. [asy] draw((30,0)--(-70,0), Arrow); draw((30,0)--(-20,-40)); draw((-20,-40)--(80,-40), Arrow); draw((0,-60)--(-40,20), dashed, Arrow); draw((0,-60)--(0,15), dashed); draw((0,15)--(40,-65),dashed, Arrow); [/asy]

Given is a natural number $n > 5$. On a circular strip of paper is written a sequence of zeros and ones. For each sequence $w$ of $n$ zeros and ones we count the number of ways to cut out a fragment from the strip on which is written $w$. It turned out that the largest number $M$ is achieved for the sequence $11 00...0$ ($n-2$ zeros) and the smallest - for the sequence $00...011$ ($n-2$ zeros). Prove that there is another sequence of $n$ zeros and ones that occurs exactly $M$ times.

Let $n$ be even positive integer. There are $n$ real positive numbers written on the blackboard. In every step, we choose two numbers, erase them, and replace [i]each[/i] of then by their product. Show that for any initial $n$-tuple it is possible to obtain $n$ equal numbers on the blackboard after a finite number of steps. [i]Proposed by Peter Novotný[/i]

Can the numbers from \( 1 \) to \( 2025 \) be arranged in a circle such that the difference between any two adjacent numbers has the form \( 2^k \) for some non-negative integer \( k \)? For different adjacent pairs of numbers, the values of \( k \) may be different. [i]Proposed by Anton Trygub[/i]

In a rock-paper-scissors round robin tournament any two contestants play against each other ten times in a row. Each contestant has a favourite strategy, which is a fixed sequence of ten hands (for example, RRSPPRSPPS), which they play against all other contestants. At the end of the tournament it turned out that every player won at least one hand (out of the ten) against any other player. Prove that at most $1024$ contestants participated in the tournament. [i]Submitted by Dávid Matolcsi, Budapest[/i]

Call a simple graph $G$ [i]quasicolorable[/i] if we can color each edge blue, red, green, or white such that [list] [*] for each vertex v of degree 3 in G, the three edges incident to v are either (1) red, green, and blue, or (2) all white, [*] not all edges are white. [/list] A simple connected graph $G$ has $a$ vertices of degree $4$, $b$ vertices of degree $3$, and no other vertices, where $a$ and $b$ are positive integers. Find the smallest real number $c$ so that the following statement is true: “If $a/b > c$, then $G$ must be quasicolorable.”