Found problems: 175
1991 Czech And Slovak Olympiad IIIA, 3
For any permutation $p$ of the set $\{1,2,...,n\}$, let us denote $d(p) = |p(1)-1|+|p(2)-2|+...+|p(n)-n|$. Let $i(p)$ be the number of inversions of $p$, i.e. the number of pairs $1 \le i < j \le n$ with $p(i) > p(j)$. Prove that $d(p)\le 2i(p)$$.
2006 Germany Team Selection Test, 3
Suppose that $ a_1$, $ a_2$, $ \ldots$, $ a_n$ are integers such that $ n\mid a_1 \plus{} a_2 \plus{} \ldots \plus{} a_n$.
Prove that there exist two permutations $ \left(b_1,b_2,\ldots,b_n\right)$ and $ \left(c_1,c_2,\ldots,c_n\right)$ of $ \left(1,2,\ldots,n\right)$ such that for each integer $ i$ with $ 1\leq i\leq n$, we have
\[ n\mid a_i \minus{} b_i \minus{} c_i
\]
[i]Proposed by Ricky Liu & Zuming Feng, USA[/i]
1975 IMO, 1
We consider two sequences of real numbers $x_{1} \geq x_{2} \geq \ldots \geq x_{n}$ and $\ y_{1} \geq y_{2} \geq \ldots \geq y_{n}.$ Let $z_{1}, z_{2}, .\ldots, z_{n}$ be a permutation of the numbers $y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{n}.$ Prove that $\sum \limits_{i=1}^{n} ( x_{i} -\ y_{i} )^{2} \leq \sum \limits_{i=1}^{n}$ $( x_{i} - z_{i})^{2}.$
2024 Kyiv City MO Round 2, Problem 4
There are $n \geq 1$ notebooks, numbered from $1$ to $n$, stacked in a pile. Zahar repeats the following operation: he randomly chooses a notebook whose number $k$ does not correspond to its location in this stack, counting from top to bottom, and returns it to the $k$th position, counting from the top, without changing the location of the other notebooks. If there is no such notebook, he stops.
Is it guaranteed that Zahar will arrange all the notebooks in ascending order of numbers in a finite number of operations?
[i]Proposed by Zahar Naumets[/i]
1963 IMO Shortlist, 6
Five students $ A, B, C, D, E$ took part in a contest. One prediction was that the contestants would finish in the order $ ABCDE$. This prediction was very poor. In fact, no contestant finished in the position predicted, and no two contestants predicted to finish consecutively actually did so. A second prediction had the contestants finishing in the order $ DAECB$. This prediction was better. Exactly two of the contestants finished in the places predicted, and two disjoint pairs of students predicted to finish consecutively actually did so. Determine the order in which the contestants finished.
2022 CIIM, 4
Given a positive integer $n$, determine how many permutations $\sigma$ of the set $\{1, 2, \ldots , 2022n\}$ have the following property: for each $i \in \{1, 2, \ldots , 2021n + 1\}$, the number $$\sigma(i) + \sigma(i + 1) + \cdots + \sigma(i + n - 1)$$ is a multiple of $n$.
2022 Singapore MO Open, Q4
Let $n,k$, $1\le k\le n$ be fixed integers. Alice has $n$ cards in a row, where the card has position $i$ has the label $i+k$ (or $i+k-n$ if $i+k>n$). Alice starts by colouring each card either red or blue. Afterwards, she is allowed to make several moves, where each move consists of choosing two cards of different colours and swapping them. Find the minimum number of moves she has to make (given that she chooses the colouring optimally) to put the cards in order (i.e. card $i$ is at position $i$).
NOTE: edited from original phrasing, which was ambiguous.
2024 Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad, P6
Let $a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_{2024}$ be a permutation of $1, 2, \ldots, 2024$. Find the minimum possible value of\[\sum_{i=1} ^{2023} \Big[(a_i+a_{i+1})\Big(\frac{1}{a_i}+\frac{1}{a_{i+1}}\Big)+\frac{1}{a_ia_{i+1}}\Big]\]
[i]Proposed by Md. Ashraful Islam Fahim[/i]
2021 Kyiv City MO Round 1, 10.2
The $1 \times 1$ cells located around the perimeter of a $4 \times 4$ square are filled with the numbers $1,
2, \ldots, 12$ so that the sums along each of the four sides are equal. In the upper left corner cell is the number $1$, in the upper right - the number $5$, and in the lower right - the number $11$.
[img]https://i.ibb.co/PM0ry1D/Kyiv-City-MO-2021-Round-1-10-2.png[/img]
Under these conditions, what number can be located in the last corner cell?
[i]Proposed by Mariia Rozhkova[/i]
1992 IMO Longlists, 41
Let $S$ be a set of positive integers $n_1, n_2, \cdots, n_6$ and let $n(f)$ denote the number $n_1n_{f(1)} +n_2n_{f(2)} +\cdots+n_6n_{f(6)}$, where $f$ is a permutation of $\{1, 2, . . . , 6\}$. Let
\[\Omega=\{n(f) | f \text{ is a permutation of } \{1, 2, . . . , 6\} \} \]
Give an example of positive integers $n_1, \cdots, n_6$ such that $\Omega$ contains as many elements as possible and determine the number of elements of $\Omega$.
2011 Ukraine Team Selection Test, 12
Let $ n $ be a natural number. Consider all permutations $ ({{a} _ {1}}, \ \ldots, \ {{a} _ {2n}}) $ of the first $ 2n $ natural numbers such that the numbers $ | {{a} _ {i +1}} - {{a} _ {i}} |, \ i = 1, \ \ldots, \ 2n-1, $ are pairwise different. Prove that $ {{a} _ {1}} - {{a} _ {2n}} = n $ if and only if $ 1 \le {{a} _ {2k}} \le n $ for all $ k = 1, \ \ldots, \ n $.
1968 IMO Shortlist, 20
Given $n \ (n \geq 3)$ points in space such that every three of them form a triangle with one angle greater than or equal to $120^\circ$, prove that these points can be denoted by $A_1,A_2, \ldots,A_n$ in such a way that for each $i, j, k, 1 \leq i < j < k \leq n$, angle $A_iA_jA_k$ is greater than or equal to $120^\circ . $
2024 Miklos Schweitzer, 4
Let $\pi$ be a given permutation of the set $\{1, 2, \dots, n\}$. Determine the smallest possible value of
\[
\sum_{i=1}^n |\pi(i) - \sigma(i)|,
\]
where $\sigma$ is a permutation chosen from the set of all $n$-cycles. Express the result in terms of the number and lengths of the cycles in the disjoint cycle decomposition of $\pi$, including the fixed points.
1990 IMO Longlists, 12
For any permutation $p$ of set $\{1, 2, \ldots, n\}$, define $d(p) = |p(1) - 1| + |p(2) - 2| + \ldots + |p(n) - n|$. Denoted by $i(p)$ the number of integer pairs $(i, j)$ in permutation $p$ such that $1 \leqq < j \leq n$ and $p(i) > p(j)$. Find all the real numbers $c$, such that the inequality $i(p) \leq c \cdot d(p)$ holds for any positive integer $n$ and any permutation $p.$
2010 Germany Team Selection Test, 3
Let $P(x)$ be a non-constant polynomial with integer coefficients. Prove that there is no function $T$ from the set of integers into the set of integers such that the number of integers $x$ with $T^n(x)=x$ is equal to $P(n)$ for every $n\geq 1$, where $T^n$ denotes the $n$-fold application of $T$.
[i]Proposed by Jozsef Pelikan, Hungary[/i]
2016 Spain Mathematical Olympiad, 5
From all possible permutations from $(a_1,a_2,...,a_n)$ from the set $\{1,2,..,n\}$, $n\geq 1$, consider the sets that satisfies the $2(a_1+a_2+...+a_m)$ is divisible by $m$, for every $m=1,2,...,n$. Find the total number of permutations.
1997 IMO Shortlist, 21
Let $ x_1$, $ x_2$, $ \ldots$, $ x_n$ be real numbers satisfying the conditions:
\[ \left\{\begin{array}{cccc} |x_1 \plus{} x_2 \plus{} \cdots \plus{} x_n | & \equal{} & 1 & \ \\
|x_i| & \leq & \displaystyle \frac {n \plus{} 1}{2} & \ \textrm{ for }i \equal{} 1, 2, \ldots , n. \end{array} \right.
\]
Show that there exists a permutation $ y_1$, $ y_2$, $ \ldots$, $ y_n$ of $ x_1$, $ x_2$, $ \ldots$, $ x_n$ such that
\[ | y_1 \plus{} 2 y_2 \plus{} \cdots \plus{} n y_n | \leq \frac {n \plus{} 1}{2}.
\]
2005 Gheorghe Vranceanu, 1
Let be a natural number $ n\ge 2 $ and the $ n\times n $ matrix whose entries at the $ \text{i-th} $ line and $ \text{j-th} $ column is $ \min (i,j) . $ Calculate:
[b]a)[/b] its determinant.
[b]b)[/b] its inverse.
2023 Austrian MO Regional Competition, 3
Determine all natural numbers $n \ge 2$ with the property that there are two permutations $(a_1, a_2,... , a_n) $ and $(b_1, b_2,... , b_n)$ of the numbers $1, 2,..., n$ such that $(a_1 + b_1, a_2 +b_2,..., a_n + b_n)$ are consecutive natural numbers.
[i](Walther Janous)[/i]
2002 Singapore MO Open, 3
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Determine the smallest value of the sum $a_1b_1+a_2b_2+...+a_{2n+2}b_{2n+2}$
where $(a_1,a_2,...,a_{2n+2})$ and $(b_1,b_2,...,b_{2n+2})$ are rearrangements of the binomial coefficients $2n+1 \choose 0$, $2n+1 \choose 1$,...,$2n+1 \choose 2n+1$. Justify your answer
1988 Tournament Of Towns, (200) 3
The integers $1 , 2,..., n$ are rearranged in such a way that if the integer $k, 1 \le k\le n$, is not the first term, then one of the integers $k + 1$ or $k-1$ occurs to the left of $k$ . How many arrangements of the integers $1 , 2,..., n$ satisfy this condition?
(A. Andjans, Riga)
2011 Gheorghe Vranceanu, 1
Let $ \sigma_1 ,\sigma_2 $ be two permutations of order $ n $ such that $ \sigma_1 (k)=\sigma_2 (n-k+1) $ for $ k=\overline{1,n} . $ Prove that the number of inversions of $ \sigma_1 $ plus the number of inversions of $ \sigma_2 $ is $ \frac{n(n+1)}{2} . $
2017 Kyiv Mathematical Festival, 1
Several dwarves were lined up in a row, and then they lined up in a row in a different order. Is it possible that exactly one third of the dwarves have both of their neighbours remained and exactly one third of the dwarves have only one of their neighbours remained, if the number of the dwarves is a) 6; b) 9?
1986 IMO Shortlist, 8
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.
2009 Brazil Team Selection Test, 1
Let $n \in \mathbb N$ and $A_n$ set of all permutations $(a_1, \ldots, a_n)$ of the set $\{1, 2, \ldots , n\}$ for which
\[k|2(a_1 + \cdots+ a_k), \text{ for all } 1 \leq k \leq n.\]
Find the number of elements of the set $A_n$.
[i]Proposed by Vidan Govedarica, Serbia[/i]