Alice and Bob play the following game: Alice picks a set $A = \{1, 2, ..., n \}$ for some natural number $n \ge 2$. Then, starting from Bob, they alternatively choose one number from the set $A$, according to the following conditions: initially Bob chooses any number he wants, afterwards the number chosen at each step should be distinct from all the already chosen numbers and should differ by $1$ from an already chosen number. The game ends when all numbers from the set $A$ are chosen. Alice wins if the sum of all the numbers that she has chosen is composite. Otherwise Bob wins. Decide which player has a winning strategy. Proposed by [i]Demetres Christofides, Cyprus[/i]

The infinite sequence $a_0,a _1, a_2, \dots$ of (not necessarily distinct) integers has the following properties: $0\le a_i \le i$ for all integers $i\ge 0$, and \[\binom{k}{a_0} + \binom{k}{a_1} + \dots + \binom{k}{a_k} = 2^k\] for all integers $k\ge 0$. Prove that all integers $N\ge 0$ occur in the sequence (that is, for all $N\ge 0$, there exists $i\ge 0$ with $a_i=N$).

A person moves in the $x-y$ plane moving along points with integer co-ordinates $x$ and $y$ only. When she is at a point $(x,y)$, she takes a step based on the following rules: (a) if $x+y$ is even she moves to either $(x+1,y)$ or $(x+1,y+1)$; (b) if $x+y$ is odd she moves to either $(x,y+1)$ or $(x+1,y+1)$. How many distinct paths can she take to go from $(0,0)$ to $(8,8)$ given that she took exactly three steps to the right $((x,y)$ to $(x+1,y))$?

On the board we write a series of $n$ numbers, where $n \geq 40$, and each one of them is equal to either $1$ or $-1$, such that the following conditions both hold: (i) The sum of every $40$ consecutive numbers is equal to $0$. (ii) The sum of every $42$ consecutive numbers is not equal to $0$. We denote by $S_n$ the sum of the $n$ numbers of the board. Find the maximum possible value of $S_n$ for all possible values of $n$.

Prove that there exist $ 2004 $ pairwise distinct numbers $ n_1,n_2,\ldots ,n_{2004} , $ all greater than $ 1, $ satisfying: $$ \binom{n_1}{2} +\binom{n_2}{2} +\cdots +\binom{n_{2003}}{2} =\binom{n_{2004}}{2} . $$

Let $N$ be an integer, $N>2$. Arnold and Bernold play the following game: there are initially $N$ tokens on a pile. Arnold plays first and removes $k$ tokens from the pile, $1\le k < N$. Then Bernold removes $m$ tokens from the pile, $1\le m\le 2k$ and so on, that is, each player, on its turn, removes a number of tokens from the pile that is between $1$ and twice the number of tokens his opponent took last. The player that removes the last token wins. For each value of $N$, find which player has a winning strategy and describe it.

[b]p1. [/b] At Duke, $1/2$ of the students like lacrosse, $3/4$ like football, and $7/8$ like basketball. Let $p$ be the proportion of students who like at least all three of these sports and let $q$ be the difference between the maximum and minimum possible values of $p$. If $q$ is written as $m/n$ in lowest terms, find the value of $m + n$. [b]p2.[/b] A [i]dukie [/i]word is a $10$-letter word, each letter is one of the four $D, U, K, E$ such that there are four consecutive letters in that word forming the letter $DUKE$ in this order. For example, $DUDKDUKEEK$ is a dukie word, but $DUEDKUKEDE$ is not. How many different dukie words can we construct in total? [b]p3.[/b] Rectangle $ABCD$ has sides $AB = 8$, $BC = 6$. $\vartriangle AEC$ is an isosceles right triangle with hypotenuse $AC$ and $E$ above $AC$. $\vartriangle BFD$ is an isosceles right triangle with hypotenuse $BD$ and $F$ below $BD$. Find the area of $BCFE$. [b]p4.[/b] Chris is playing with $6$ pumpkins. He decides to cut each pumpkin in half horizontally into a top half and a bottom half. He then pairs each top-half pumpkin with a bottom-half pumpkin, so that he ends up having six “recombinant pumpkins”. In how many ways can he pair them so that only one of the six top-half pumpkins is paired with its original bottom-half pumpkin? [b]p5.[/b] Matt comes to a pumpkin farm to pick $3$ pumpkins. He picks the pumpkins randomly from a total of $30$ pumpkins. Every pumpkin weighs an integer value between $7$ to $16$ (including $7$ and $16$) pounds, and there’re $3$ pumpkins for each integer weight between $7$ to $16$. Matt hopes the weight of the $3$ pumpkins he picks to form the length of the sides of a triangle. Let $m/n$ be the probability, in lowest terms, that Matt will get what he hopes for. Find the value of $m + n$ [b]p6.[/b] Let $a, b, c, d$ be distinct complex numbers such that $|a| = |b| = |c| = |d| = 3$ and $|a + b + c + d| = 8$. Find $|abc + abd + acd + bcd|$. [b]p7.[/b] A board contains the integers $1, 2, ..., 10$. Anna repeatedly erases two numbers $a$ and $b$ and replaces it with $a + b$, gaining $ab(a + b)$ lollipops in the process. She stops when there is only one number left in the board. Assuming Anna uses the best strategy to get the maximum number of lollipops, how many lollipops will she have? [b]p8.[/b] Ajay and Joey are playing a card game. Ajay has cards labelled $2, 4, 6, 8$, and $10$, and Joey has cards labelled $1, 3, 5, 7, 9$. Each of them takes a hand of $4$ random cards and picks one to play. If one of the cards is at least twice as big as the other, whoever played the smaller card wins. Otherwise, the larger card wins. Ajay and Joey have big brains, so they play perfectly. If $m/n$ is the probability, in lowest terms, that Joey wins, find $m + n$. [b]p9.[/b] Let $ABCDEFGHI$ be a regular nonagon with circumcircle $\omega$ and center $O$. Let $M$ be the midpoint of the shorter arc $AB$ of $\omega$, $P$ be the midpoint of $MO$, and $N$ be the midpoint of $BC$. Let lines $OC$ and $PN$ intersect at $Q$. Find the measure of $\angle NQC$ in degrees. [b]p10.[/b] In a $30 \times 30$ square table, every square contains either a kit-kat or an oreo. Let $T$ be the number of triples ($s_1, s_2, s_3$) of squares such that $s_1$ and $s_2$ are in the same row, and $s_2$ and $s_3$ are in the same column, with $s_1$ and $s_3$ containing kit-kats and $s_2$ containing an oreo. Find the maximum value of $T$. PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Let $x_1,x_2,x_3,...,x_{102}$ be natural numbers such that $x_1<x_2<x_3<...<x_{102}<255$. Prove that among the numbers $d_1=x_2-x_1, d_2=x_3-x_2, ..., d_{101}=x_{102}-x_{101}$ there are at least $26$ equal.

How many ways to fill the board $ 4\times 4$ by nonnegative integers, such that sum of the numbers of each row and each column is 3?

A [i]string of parentheses[/i] is any word that can be composed by the following rules. 1) () is a string of parentheses. 2) If $s$ is a string of parentheses then $(s)$ is a string of parentheses. 3) If $s$ and t are strings of parentheses then $st$ is a string of parentheses. The [i]midcode [/i] of a string of parentheses is the tuple of natural numbers obtained by finding, for all pairs of opening and its corresponding closing parenthesis, the number of characters remaining to the left from the medium position between these parentheses, and writing all these numbers in non-decreasing order. For example, the midcode of $(())$ is $(2,2)$ and the midcode of ()() is $(1,3)$. Prove that midcodes of arbitrary two different strings of parentheses are different.

Let $n\geqslant 2$ be an integer and $A{}$ a set of $n$ points in the plane. Find all integers $1\leqslant k\leqslant n-1$ with the following property: any two circles $C_1$ and $C_2$ in the plane such that $A\cap\text{Int}(C_1)\neq A\cap\text{Int}(C_2)$ and $|A\cap\text{Int}(C_1)|=|A\cap\text{Int}(C_2)|=k$ have at least one common point. [i]Cristi Săvescu[/i]

Find all positive integers $n$ and $m$ such that $$\dbinom{n}{1} + \dbinom{n}{3} = 2^m.$$

Let $n> 2$ be a positive integer. Given is a horizontal row of $n$ cells where each cell is painted blue or red. We say that a block is a sequence of consecutive boxes of the same color. Arepito the crab is initially standing at the leftmost cell. On each turn, he counts the number $m$ of cells belonging to the largest block containing the square he is on, and does one of the following: If the square he is on is blue and there are at least $m$ squares to the right of him, Arepito moves $m$ squares to the right; If the square he is in is red and there are at least $m$ squares to the left of him, Arepito moves $m$ cells to the left; In any other case, he stays on the same square and does not move any further. For each $n$, determine the smallest integer $k$ for which there is an initial coloring of the row with $k$ blue cells, for which Arepito will reach the rightmost cell.

Let $n\in \mathbb{N}$ be a number multiple of 4. We take all permutations $(a_1,a_2...a_n)$ of the numbers $(1,2...n)$, for which $\forall j$, $a_i+j=n+1$ where $i=a_j$. Prove that there exist $\frac{(\frac{1}{2}n)!}{(\frac{1}{4}n)!}$ such permutations.

Find the sum of all $5$-digit positive integers that they have only the digits $1, 2$, and $5$, none repeated more than three consecutive times.

In a video game, there is a board divided into squares, with $27$ rows and $27$ columns. The squares are painted alternately in black, gray and white as follows: $\bullet$ in the first row, the first square is black, the next is gray, the next is white, the next is black, and so on; $\bullet$ in the second row, the first is white, the next is black, the next is gray, the next is white, and so on; $\bullet$ in the third row, the order would be gray-white-black-gray and so on; $\bullet$ the fourth row is painted the same as the first, the fifth the same as the second, $\bullet$ the sixth the same as the third, and so on. In the box in row $i$ and column $j$, there are $ij$ coins. For example, in the box in row $15$ and column $20$ there are $(15) (20) = 300$ coins. Verify that in total there are, in the black squares, $9^2 (13^2 + 14^2 + 15^2)$ coins.

A set of $n$ points in space is given, no three of which are collinear and no four of which are co-planar (on a single plane), and each pair of points is connected by a line segment. Initially, all the line segments are colorless. A positive integer $b$ is given and Alice and Bob play the following game. In each turn Alice colors one segment red and then Bob colors up to $b$ segments blue. This is repeated until there are no more colorless segments left. If Alice colors a red triangle, Alice wins. If there are no more colorless segments and Alice hasn’t succeeded in coloring a red triangle, Bob wins. Neither player is allowed to color over an already colored line segment. 1. Prove that if $b < \sqrt{2n - 2} -\frac32$ , then Alice has a winning strategy. 2. Prove that if $b \ge 2\sqrt{n}$, then Bob has a winning strategy.

$20$ football teams participate in the championship. What minimal number of the games should be played to provide the property: [i] from the three arbitrary teams we can find at least on pair that have already met in the championship.[/i]

A table consisting of $5$ columns and $32$ rows, which are filled with zero and one numbers, are "varied", if no two lines are filled in the same way.\\ On the exterior of a cylinder, a table with $32$ rows and $16$ columns is constructed. Is it possible to fill the numbers cells of the table with numbers zero and one, such that any five consecutive columns, table $32\times5$ created by these columns, is a varied one? [i]Proposed by Morteza Saghafian[/i]

An alien with four feet wants to wear four identical socks and four identical shoes, where on each foot a sock must be put on before a shoe. How many ways are there for the alien to wear socks and shoes?

Let $A = (a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_{2001})$ be a sequence of positive integers. Let $m$ be the number of 3-element subsequences $(a_i,a_j,a_k)$ with $1 \leq i < j < k \leq 2001$, such that $a_j = a_i + 1$ and $a_k = a_j + 1$. Considering all such sequences $A$, find the greatest value of $m$.

A bored student walks down a hallway where there is a row of closed lockers, numbered from $1$ to $1024$. Opens cabinet No. $1$, then skips one cabinet and opens the next, and so on successively. When he reaches the end of the row, he turns around and starts again: he opens the first cabinet it finds closed, he skips the next closed cabinet and so on until the start from the hallway. goes from beginning to end, from end to beginning of the corridor until all the cabinets are left open. What is the number of the last cabinet he opened?

A token is placed at each vertex of a regular $2n$-gon. A [i]move[/i] consists in choosing an edge of the $2n$-gon and swapping the two tokens placed at the endpoints of that edge. After a finite number of moves have been performed, it turns out that every two tokens have been swapped exactly once. Prove that some edge has never been chosen.

Bilbo, Gandalf, and Nitzan play the following game. First, Nitzan picks a whole number between $1$ and $2^{2022}$ inclusive and reveals it to Bilbo. Bilbo now compiles a string of length $4044$ built from the three letters $a,b,c$. Nitzan looks at the string, chooses one of the three letters $a,b,c$, and removes from the string all instances of the chosen letter. Only then is the string revealed to Gandalf. He must now guess the number Nitzan chose. Can Bilbo and Gandalf work together and come up with a strategy beforehand that will always allow Gandalf to guess Nitzan's number correctly, no matter how he acts?

We are given a polyhedron with at least $5$ vertices, such that exactly $3$ edges meet in each of the vertices. Prove that we can assign a rational number to every vertex of the given polyhedron such that the following conditions are met: $(i)$ At least one of the numbers assigned to the vertices is equal to $2020$. $(ii)$ For every polygonal face, the product of the numbers assigned to the vertices of that face is equal to $1$.