We call $ A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_n$ an $ n$-division of $ A$ if (i) $ A_1 \cap A_2 \cap \cdots \cap A_n \equal{} A$, (ii) $ A_i \cap A_j \neq \emptyset$. Find the smallest positive integer $ m$ such that for any $ 14$-division $ A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_{14}$ of $ A \equal{} \{1, 2, \ldots, m\}$, there exists a set $ A_i$ ($ 1 \leq i \leq 14$) such that there are two elements $ a, b$ of $ A_i$ such that $ b < a \leq \frac {4}{3}b$.

Let $\triangle P_1P_2P_3$ be an equilateral triangle. For each $n\ge 4$, [i]Mingmingsan[/i] can set $P_n$ as the circumcenter or orthocenter of $\triangle P_{n-3}P_{n-2}P_{n-1}$. Find all positive integer $n$ such that [i]Mingmingsan[/i] has a strategy to make $P_n$ equals to the circumcenter of $\triangle P_1P_2P_3$. [i]Proposed by Li4 and Untro368.[/i]

A number of $n > m \geq 1$ soccer teams play a full tournament, each team meeting (once) each other. Points are awarded: $2$ for a victory, $1$ for a tie and $0$ for a loss. At the end, each team has won half of its points against the $m$ teams placed last (including each of these teams, who won half of its points against the other $m-1$). Find all possible values for $n$ and $m$, supported with examples of such tournaments.

Find the number of ways to arrange the letters in $LE X I NGTON$ such that the string $LE X$ does not appear.

Find the number of pairs $(m, n)$ of positive integers, both of which are $\le 1000$, such that $\frac{m}{n+1}< \sqrt2 < \frac{m+1}{n}$ (recalling that $ \sqrt2 = 1.414213..$.). (D. Fomin, Leningrad)

Let $ n$ be a positive integer congruent to $1$ modulo $4$. Xantippa has a bag of $n + 1$ balls numbered from $ 0$ to $n$. She draws a ball (randomly, equally distributed) from the bag and reads its number: $k$, say. She keeps the ball and then picks up another $k$ balls from the bag (randomly, equally distributed, without repossession). Finally, she adds up the numbers of all the $k + 1$ balls she picked up. What is the probability that the sum will be odd?

There are some players in a Ping Pong tournament, where every $2$ players play with each other at most once. Given: \\(1) Each player wins at least $a$ players, and loses to at least $b$ players. ($a,b\geq 1$) \\(2) For any two players $A,B$, there exist some players $P_1,...,P_k$ ($k\geq 2$) (where $P_1=A$,$P_k=B$), such that $P_i$ wins $P_{i+1}$ ($i=1,2...,k-1$). \\Prove that there exist $a+b+1$ distinct players $Q_1,...Q_{a+b+1}$, such that $Q_i$ wins $Q_{i+1}$ ($i=1,...,a+b$)

On a checkered square $10 \times 10$ the cells of the upper left $5 \times 5$ square are black and all the other cells are white. What is the maximal $n$ such that the original square can be dissected (along the borders of the cells) into $n$ polygons such that in each of them the number of black cells is three times less than the number of white cells? (The polygons need not be congruent or even equal in area.)

The vault of a bank has $N$ locks. To open it, they must be operated simultaneously. Five executives have some of the keys, so any trio can open the vault, but no pair can do it. Determine $N$.

$3n$ people forming $n$ families of a mother, a father and a child, stand in a circle. Every two neighbours can exchange places except the case when a parent exchanges places with his/her child (this is forbidden). For what $n$ is it possible to obtain every arrangement of those people by such exchanges? The arrangements differing by a circular shift are considered distinct.

[u]Round 1[/u] [b]p1.[/b] Elaine creates a sequence of positive integers $\{s_n\}$. She starts with $s_1 = 2018$. For $n \ge 2$, she sets $s_n =\frac12 s_{n-1}$ if $s_{n-1}$ is even and $s_n = s_{n-1} + 1$ if $s_{n-1}$ is odd. Find the smallest positive integer $n$ such that $s_n = 1$, or submit “$0$” as your answer if no such $n$ exists. [b]p2.[/b] Alice rolls a fair six-sided die with the numbers $1$ through $6$, and Bob rolls a fair eight-sided die with the numbers $1$ through $8$. Alice wins if her number divides Bob’s number, and Bob wins otherwise. What is the probability that Alice wins? [b]p3.[/b] Four circles each of radius $\frac14$ are centered at the points $\left( \pm \frac14, \pm \frac14 \right)$, and ther exists a fifth circle is externally tangent to these four circles. What is the radius of this fifth circle? [u]Round 2 [/u] [b]p4.[/b] If Anna rows at a constant speed, it takes her two hours to row her boat up the river (which flows at a constant rate) to Bob’s house and thirty minutes to row back home. How many minutes would it take Anna to row to Bob’s house if the river were to stop flowing? [b]p5.[/b] Let $a_1 = 2018$, and for $n \ge 2$ define $a_n = 2018^{a_{n-1}}$ . What is the ones digit of $a_{2018}$? [b]p6.[/b] We can write $(x + 35)^n =\sum_{i=0}^n c_ix^i$ for some positive integer $n$ and real numbers $c_i$. If $c_0 = c_2$, what is $n$? [u]Round 3[/u] [b]p7.[/b] How many positive integers are factors of $12!$ but not of $(7!)^2$? [b]p8.[/b] How many ordered pairs $(f(x), g(x))$ of polynomials of degree at least $1$ with integer coefficients satisfy $f(x)g(x) = 50x^6 - 3200$? [b]p9.[/b] On a math test, Alice, Bob, and Carol are each equally likely to receive any integer score between $1$ and $10$ (inclusive). What is the probability that the average of their three scores is an integer? [u]Round 4[/u] [b]p10.[/b] Find the largest positive integer N such that $$(a-b)(a-c)(a-d)(a-e)(b-c)(b-d)(b-e)(c-d)(c-e)(d-e)$$ is divisible by $N$ for all choices of positive integers $a > b > c > d > e$. [b]p11.[/b] Let $ABCDE$ be a square pyramid with $ABCD$ a square and E the apex of the pyramid. Each side length of $ABCDE$ is $6$. Let $ABCDD'C'B'A'$ be a cube, where $AA'$, $BB'$, $CC'$, $DD'$ are edges of the cube. Andy the ant is on the surface of $EABCDD'C'B'A'$ at the center of triangle $ABE$ (call this point $G$) and wants to crawl on the surface of the cube to $D'$. What is the length the shortest path from $G$ to $D'$? Write your answer in the form $\sqrt{a + b\sqrt3}$, where $a$ and $b$ are positive integers. [b]p12.[/b] A six-digit palindrome is a positive integer between $100, 000$ and $999, 999$ (inclusive) which is the same read forwards and backwards in base ten. How many composite six-digit palindromes are there? PS. You should use hide for answers. Rounds 5-7 have been posted [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c4h2784943p24473026]here[/url]. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

A subset $S \in \{0, 1, 2, \cdots , 2000\}$ satisfies $|S|=401$. Prove that there exists a positive integer $n$ such that there are at least $70$ positive integers $x$ such that $x, x+n \in S$

Let $ u_1, u_2, \ldots, u_m$ be $ m$ vectors in the plane, each of length $ \leq 1,$ with zero sum. Show that one can arrange $ u_1, u_2, \ldots, u_m$ as a sequence $ v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_m$ such that each partial sum $ v_1, v_1 \plus{} v_2, v_1 \plus{} v_2 \plus{} v_3, \ldots, v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_m$ has length less than or equal to $ \sqrt {5}.$

The edges of a complete graph on $1000$ vertices are colored in three colors. Prove that this graph contains a non-self-intersecting single-color cycle whose length is odd and not less than $41$.

For points $ A_1, \ldots ,A_5$ on the sphere of radius 1, what is the maximum value that $ min_{1 \leq i,j \leq 5} A_iA_j$ can take? Determine all configurations for which this maximum is attained. (Or: determine the diameter of any set $ \{A_1, \ldots ,A_5\}$ for which this maximum is attained.)

Each cell of the 4x4 board has a grasshopper. When a grasshopper jumps, it moves to one of the adjacent cells (down, up, right, or left). The grasshopper cannot move diagonally or go off the board. At most how many cells can remain empty after each grasshopper jumps once?

An $\textrm{alien}$ script has $n$ letters $b_1,b_2,\dots,b_n$. For some $k<n/2$ assume that all words formed by any of the $k$ letters (written left to right) are meaningful. These words are called $k$-words. Such a $k$-word is considered $\textbf{sacred}$ if: i. no letter appears twice and, ii. if a letter $b_i$ appears in the word then the letters $b_{i-1}$ and $b_{i+1}$ do not appear. (Here $b_{n+1} = b_1$ and $b_0 = b_n$). For example, if $n = 7$ and $k = 3$ then $b_1b_3b_6, b_3b_1b_6, b_2b_4b_6$ are sacred $3$-words. On the other hand $b_1b_7b_4, b_2b_2b_6$ are not sacred. What is the total number of sacred $k$-words? Use your formula to find the answer for $n = 10$ and $k = 4$.

At the math contest each participant met at least $3$ pals who he/she already knew. Prove that the Jury can choose an even number of participants (more than two) and arrange them around a table so that each participant be set between these who he/she knows.

$n$ students want to equally partition $m$ identical cakes between themselves. What’s the minimal number of pieces of cake one has to cut, so that the upper condition is satisfied? Each cut increases the number of pieces by 1.

We call a $5$-tuple of integers [i]arrangeable[/i] if its elements can be labeled $a, b, c, d, e$ in some order so that $a-b+c-d+e=29$. Determine all $2017$-tuples of integers $n_1, n_2, . . . , n_{2017}$ such that if we place them in a circle in clockwise order, then any $5$-tuple of numbers in consecutive positions on the circle is arrangeable. [i]Warut Suksompong, Thailand[/i]

There are $32$ students in the class with $10$ interesting group. Each group contains exactly $16$ students. For each couple of students, the square of the number of the groups which are only involved by just one of the two students is defined as their $interests-disparity$. Define $S$ as the sum of the $interests-disparity$ of all the couples, $\binom{32}{2}\left ( =\: 496 \right )$ ones in total. Determine the minimal possible value of $S$.

In some squares of a $2012\times 2012$ grid there are some beetles, such that no square contain more than one beetle. At one moment, all the beetles fly off the grid and then land on the grid again, also satisfying the condition that there is at most one beetle standing in each square. The vector from the centre of the square from which a beetle $B$ flies to the centre of the square on which it lands is called the [i]translation vector[/i] of beetle $B$. For all possible starting and ending configurations, find the maximum length of the sum of the [i]translation vectors[/i] of all beetles.

A teacher wants to divide the $2010$ questions she asked in the exams during the school year into three folders of $670$ questions and give each folder to a student who solved all $670$ questions in that folder. Determine the minimum number of students in the class that makes this possible for all possible situations in which there are at most two students who did not solve any given question.

The leader of an IMO team chooses positive integers $n$ and $k$ with $n > k$, and announces them to the deputy leader and a contestant. The leader then secretly tells the deputy leader an $n$-digit binary string, and the deputy leader writes down all $n$-digit binary strings which differ from the leader’s in exactly $k$ positions. (For example, if $n = 3$ and $k = 1$, and if the leader chooses $101$, the deputy leader would write down $001, 111$ and $100$.) The contestant is allowed to look at the strings written by the deputy leader and guess the leader’s string. What is the minimum number of guesses (in terms of $n$ and $k$) needed to guarantee the correct answer?

At each of the given $n$ points on a circle, either $+1$ or $-1$ is written. The following operation is performed: between any two consecutive numbers on the circle their product is written, and the initial $n$ numbers are deleted. Suppose that, for any initial arrangement of $+1$ and $-1$ on the circle, after finitely many operations all the numbers on the circle will be equal to $+1$. Prove that $n$ is a power of two.