Let $ n \geq 3$ and consider a set $ E$ of $ 2n \minus{} 1$ distinct points on a circle. Suppose that exactly $ k$ of these points are to be colored black. Such a coloring is [b]good[/b] if there is at least one pair of black points such that the interior of one of the arcs between them contains exactly $ n$ points from $ E$. Find the smallest value of $ k$ so that every such coloring of $ k$ points of $ E$ is good.

At a meeting of $ 12k$ people, each person exchanges greetings with exactly $ 3k\plus{}6$ others. For any two people, the number who exchange greetings with both is the same. How many people are at the meeting?

For what values of $ n$ does there exist an $ n \times n$ array of entries -1, 0 or 1 such that the $ 2 \cdot n$ sums obtained by summing the elements of the rows and the columns are all different?

Let $n \geq 1$ be an integer. What is the maximum number of disjoint pairs of elements of the set $\{ 1,2,\ldots , n \}$ such that the sums of the different pairs are different integers not exceeding $n$?

A country has $100$ cities and $n$ airplane companies which take care of a total of $2018$ two-way direct flights between pairs of cities. There is a pair of cities such that one cannot reach one from the other with just one or two flights. What is the largest possible value of $n$ for which between any two cities there is a route (a sequence of flights) using only one of the airplane companies?

Let $n \geq 2$ be an integer. Find the maximal cardinality of a set $M$ of pairs $(j, k)$ of integers, $1 \leq j < k \leq n$, with the following property: If $(j, k) \in M$, then $(k,m) \not \in M$ for any $m.$

An $ (n, k) \minus{}$ tournament is a contest with $ n$ players held in $ k$ rounds such that: $ (i)$ Each player plays in each round, and every two players meet at most once. $ (ii)$ If player $ A$ meets player $ B$ in round $ i$, player $ C$ meets player $ D$ in round $ i$, and player $ A$ meets player $ C$ in round $ j$, then player $ B$ meets player $ D$ in round $ j$. Determine all pairs $ (n, k)$ for which there exists an $ (n, k) \minus{}$ tournament. [i]Proposed by Carlos di Fiore, Argentina[/i]

Let $R$ be a set of exactly $6$ elements. A set $F$ of subsets of $R$ is called an $S$-family over $R$ if and only if it satisfies the following three conditions: (i) For no two sets $X, Y$ in $F$ is $X \subseteq Y$ ; (ii) For any three sets $X, Y,Z$ in $F$, $X \cup Y \cup Z \neq R,$ (iii) $\bigcup_{X \in F} X = R$

Seventeen people correspond by mail with one another-each one with all the rest. In their letters only three different topics are discussed. each pair of correspondents deals with only one of these topics. Prove that there are at least three people who write to each other about the same topic.

For an ${n\times n}$ matrix $A$, let $X_{i}$ be the set of entries in row $i$, and $Y_{j}$ the set of entries in column $j$, ${1\leq i,j\leq n}$. We say that $A$ is [i]golden[/i] if ${X_{1},\dots ,X_{n},Y_{1},\dots ,Y_{n}}$ are distinct sets. Find the least integer $n$ such that there exists a ${2004\times 2004}$ golden matrix with entries in the set ${\{1,2,\dots ,n\}}$.

For a finite graph $G$, let $f(G)$ be the number of triangles and $g(G)$ the number of tetrahedra formed by edges of $G$. Find the least constant $c$ such that \[g(G)^3\le c\cdot f(G)^4\] for every graph $G$. [i]Proposed by Marcin Kuczma, Poland [/i]

Find the least natural number $ n$ such that, if the set $ \{1,2, \ldots, n\}$ is arbitrarily divided into two non-intersecting subsets, then one of the subsets contains 3 distinct numbers such that the product of two of them equals the third.

$(SWE 3)$ Find the natural number $n$ with the following properties: $(1)$ Let $S = \{P_1, P_2, \cdots\}$ be an arbitrary finite set of points in the plane, and $r_j$ the distance from $P_j$ to the origin $O.$ We assign to each $P_j$ the closed disk $D_j$ with center $P_j$ and radius $r_j$. Then some $n$ of these disks contain all points of $S.$ $(2)$ $n$ is the smallest integer with the above property.

For an ${n\times n}$ matrix $A$, let $X_{i}$ be the set of entries in row $i$, and $Y_{j}$ the set of entries in column $j$, ${1\leq i,j\leq n}$. We say that $A$ is [i]golden[/i] if ${X_{1},\dots ,X_{n},Y_{1},\dots ,Y_{n}}$ are distinct sets. Find the least integer $n$ such that there exists a ${2004\times 2004}$ golden matrix with entries in the set ${\{1,2,\dots ,n\}}$.

The colonizers of a spherical planet have decided to build $N$ towns, each having area $1/1000$ of the total area of the planet. They also decided that any two points belonging to different towns will have different latitude and different longitude. What is the maximal value of $N$?

Suppose we have a $n$-gon. Some $n-3$ diagonals are coloured black and some other $n-3$ diagonals are coloured red (a side is not a diagonal), so that no two diagonals of the same colour can intersect strictly inside the polygon, although they can share a vertex. Find the maximum number of intersection points between diagonals coloured differently strictly inside the polygon, in terms of $n$. [i]Proposed by Alexander Ivanov, Bulgaria[/i]

A strip of width $w$ is the set of all points which lie on, or between, two parallel lines distance $w$ apart. Let $S$ be a set of $n$ ($n \ge 3$) points on the plane such that any three different points of $S$ can be covered by a strip of width $1$. Prove that $S$ can be covered by a strip of width $2$.

In the plane we consider rectangles whose sides are parallel to the coordinate axes and have positive length. Such a rectangle will be called a [i]box[/i]. Two boxes [i]intersect[/i] if they have a common point in their interior or on their boundary. Find the largest $ n$ for which there exist $ n$ boxes $ B_1$, $ \ldots$, $ B_n$ such that $ B_i$ and $ B_j$ intersect if and only if $ i\not\equiv j\pm 1\pmod n$. [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]

A [i]fortress[/i] is a finite collection of cells in an infinite square grid with the property that one can pass from any cell of the fortress to any other by a sequence of moves to a cell with a common boundary line (but it can have "holes"). The [i]walls[/i] of a fortress are the unit segments between cells belonging to the fortress and cells not belonging to the fortress. The [i]area[/i] $A$ of a fortress is the number of cells it consists of. The [i]perimeter[/i] $P$ is the total length of its walls. Each cell of the fortress can contain a [i]guard[/i] which can oversee the cells to the top, the bottom, the right and the left of this cell, up until the next wall (it also oversees its own cell). (a) Determine the smallest integer $k$ such that $k$ guards suffice to oversee all cells of any fortress of perimeter $P \le 2024$. (b) Determine the smallest integer $k$ such that $k$ guards suffice to oversee all cells of any fortress of area $A \le 2024$.

Find the number of partitions of the set $\{1, 2, \cdots, n\}$ into three subsets $A_1,A_2,A_3$, some of which may be empty, such that the following conditions are satisfied: $(i)$ After the elements of every subset have been put in ascending order, every two consecutive elements of any subset have different parity. $(ii)$ If $A_1,A_2,A_3$ are all nonempty, then in exactly one of them the minimal number is even . [i]Proposed by Poland.[/i]

Let $ X$ be a set of 10,000 integers, none of them is divisible by 47. Prove that there exists a 2007-element subset $ Y$ of $ X$ such that $ a \minus{} b \plus{} c \minus{} d \plus{} e$ is not divisible by 47 for any $ a,b,c,d,e \in Y.$ [i]Author: Gerhard Wöginger, Netherlands[/i]

For any integer $n\geq 2$, let $N(n)$ be the maxima number of triples $(a_i, b_i, c_i)$, $i=1, \ldots, N(n)$, consisting of nonnegative integers $a_i$, $b_i$ and $c_i$ such that the following two conditions are satisfied: [list][*] $a_i+b_i+c_i=n$ for all $i=1, \ldots, N(n)$, [*] If $i\neq j$ then $a_i\neq a_j$, $b_i\neq b_j$ and $c_i\neq c_j$[/list] Determine $N(n)$ for all $n\geq 2$. [i]Proposed by Dan Schwarz, Romania[/i]

In a $999 \times 999$ square table some cells are white and the remaining ones are red. Let $T$ be the number of triples $(C_1,C_2,C_3)$ of cells, the first two in the same row and the last two in the same column, with $C_1,C_3$ white and $C_2$ red. Find the maximum value $T$ can attain. [i]Proposed by Merlijn Staps, The Netherlands[/i]

Let $n \geq 2$ be an integer. Find the minimum $k$ for which there exists a partition of $\{1, 2, . . . , k\}$ into $n$ subsets $X_1,X_2, \cdots , X_n$ such that the following condition holds: for any $i, j, 1 \leq i < j \leq n$, there exist $x_i \in X_1, x_j \in X_2$ such that $|x_i - x_j | = 1.$

An alphabet consists of $n$ letters. What is the maximal length of a word if we know that any two consecutive letters $a,b$ of the word are different and that the word cannot be reduced to a word of the kind $abab$ with $a\neq b$ by removing letters.