In the Bank of Shower, a bored customer lays $n$ coins in a row. Then, each second, the customer performs ``The Process." In The Process, all coins with exactly one neighboring coin heads-up before The Process are placed heads-up (in its initial location), and all other coins are placed tails-up. The customer stops once all coins are tails-up. Define the function $f$ as follows: If there exists some initial arrangement of the coins so that the customer never stops, then $f(n) = 0$. Otherwise, $f(n)$ is the average number of seconds until the customer stops over all initial configurations. It is given that whenever $n = 2^k-1$ for some positive integer $k$, $f(n) > 0$. Let $N$ be the smallest positive integer so that \[ M = 2^N \cdot \left(f(2^2-1) + f(2^3-1) + f(2^4-1) + \cdots + f(2^{10}-1)\right) \]is a positive integer. If $M = \overline{b_kb_{k-1}\cdots b_0}$ in base two, compute $N + b_0 + b_1 + \cdots + b_k$. [i]Proposed by Edward Wan and Brandon Wang[/i]

Let $\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}$ denote the set of nonnegative integers. Define a function $f:\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0} \to\mathbb{Z}$ with $f\left(0\right)=1$ and \[ f\left(n\right)=512^{\left\lfloor n/10 \right\rfloor}f\left(\left\lfloor n/10 \right\rfloor\right)\] for all $n \ge 1$. Determine the number of nonnegative integers $n$ such that the hexadecimal (base $16$) representation of $f\left(n\right)$ contains no more than $2500$ digits. [i]Proposed by Tristan Shin[/i]

We have $ n \geq 2$ lamps $ L_{1}, . . . ,L_{n}$ in a row, each of them being either on or off. Every second we simultaneously modify the state of each lamp as follows: if the lamp $ L_{i}$ and its neighbours (only one neighbour for $ i \equal{} 1$ or $ i \equal{} n$, two neighbours for other $ i$) are in the same state, then $ L_{i}$ is switched off; – otherwise, $ L_{i}$ is switched on. Initially all the lamps are off except the leftmost one which is on. $ (a)$ Prove that there are infinitely many integers $ n$ for which all the lamps will eventually be off. $ (b)$ Prove that there are infinitely many integers $ n$ for which the lamps will never be all off.

Two players, \(A\) (first player) and \(B\), take alternate turns in playing a game using 2016 chips as follows: [i]the player whose turn it is, must remove \(s\) chips from the remaining pile of chips, where \(s \in \{ 2,4,5 \}\)[/i]. No one can skip a turn. The player who at some point is unable to make a move (cannot remove chips from the pile) loses the game. Who among the two players can force a win on this game?

From a collection of $n$ persons $q$ distinct two-member teams are selected and ranked $1, \cdots, q$ (no ties). Let $m$ be the least integer larger than or equal to $2q/n$. Show that there are $m$ distinct teams that may be listed so that : [b](i)[/b] each pair of consecutive teams on the list have one member in common and [b](ii)[/b] the chain of teams on the list are in rank order. [i]Alternative formulation.[/i] Given a graph with $n$ vertices and $q$ edges numbered $1, \cdots , q$, show that there exists a chain of $m$ edges, $m \geq \frac{2q}{n}$ , each two consecutive edges having a common vertex, arranged monotonically with respect to the numbering.

The sequence $\{x_n\}$ is defined by $x_1=5$ and $x_{k+1}=x_k^2-3x_k+3$ for $k=1,2,3\cdots$. Prove that $x_k>3^{2^{k-1}}$ for any positive integer $k$.

There are $2019$ coins on a table. Some are placed with head up and others tail up. A group of $2019$ persons perform the following operations: the first person chooses any one coin and then turns it over, the second person choses any two coins and turns them over and so on and the $2019$-th person turns over all the coins. Prove that no matter which sides the coins are up initially, the $2019$ persons can come up with a procedure for turning the coins such that all the coins have smae side up at the end of the operations.

Find all functions $f: \mathbb{Z}^+\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}^+$ such that for all positive integers $m,n$ with $m\ge n$, $$f(m\varphi(n^3)) = f(m)\cdot \varphi(n^3).$$ Here $\varphi(n)$ denotes the number of positive integers coprime to $n$ and not exceeding $n$.

Show that the number \[\sqrt[n]{\sqrt{2019} + \sqrt{2018}} + \sqrt[n]{\sqrt{2019} - \sqrt{2018}}\] is irrational for any $n\ge 2$.

Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane such that for any two points $(a, b), (c, d) \in S$, we have that $| a - c | \cdot | b - d | \ge 1$. Show that [list] [*] (a) If $S = \{ Q_1, Q_2, Q_3\}$ such that for any point $Q_i$ in $S$, this point doesn't lie in the axis-aligned rectangle with corners as the other two points, show that the area of $\triangle Q_1Q_2Q_3$ is at least $\frac{\sqrt{5}}{2}$. [*] (b) If all points in $S$ lie in an axis-aligned square with sidelength $a$, then $|S| \le \frac{a^2}{\sqrt{5}} + 2a + 1$. [/list]

Each of the $n^2$ cells of an $n \times n$ grid is colored either black or white. Let $a_i$ denote the number of white cells in the $i$-th row, and let $b_i$ denote the number of black cells in the $i$-th column. Determine the maximum value of $\sum_{i=1}^n a_ib_i$ over all coloring schemes of the grid. [i]Proposed by Alex Zhai[/i]

Determine all functions $f$ defined on the set of all positive integers and taking non-negative integer values, satisfying the three conditions: [list] [*] $(i)$ $f(n) \neq 0$ for at least one $n$; [*] $(ii)$ $f(x y)=f(x)+f(y)$ for every positive integers $x$ and $y$; [*] $(iii)$ there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $f(k)=f(n-k)$ for all $k<n$. [/list]

Define the function $f:(0,1)\to (0,1)$ by \[\displaystyle f(x) = \left\{ \begin{array}{lr} x+\frac 12 & \text{if}\ \ x < \frac 12\\ x^2 & \text{if}\ \ x \ge \frac 12 \end{array} \right.\] Let $a$ and $b$ be two real numbers such that $0 < a < b < 1$. We define the sequences $a_n$ and $b_n$ by $a_0 = a, b_0 = b$, and $a_n = f( a_{n -1})$, $b_n = f (b_{n -1} )$ for $n > 0$. Show that there exists a positive integer $n$ such that \[(a_n - a_{n-1})(b_n-b_{n-1})<0.\] [i]Proposed by Denmark[/i]

Let $a_1, a_2,\dots$ be an infinite sequence of positive real numbers such that for each positive integer $n$ we have \[\frac{a_1+a_2+\cdots+a_n}n\geq\sqrt{\frac{a_1^2+a_2^2+\cdots+a_{n+1}^2}{n+1}}.\] Prove that the sequence $a_1,a_2,\dots$ is constant. [i]Proposed by Alex Zhai[/i]

There are $2005$ young people sitting around a large circular table. Of these, at most $668$ are boys. We say that a girl $G$ has a strong position, if, counting from $G$ in either direction, the number of girls is always strictly larger than the number of boys ($G$ is herself included in the count). Prove that there is always a girl in a strong position.