For a randomly selected permutation $ \mathbf{f} = (f_1,..., f_n) $ of the set $ \{1,\ldots, n\} $ let us denote by $ X(\mathbf{f}) $ the largest number $ k \leq n $ such that $ f_i < f_{ i+1} $ for all numbers $ i < k $. Prove that the expected value of the random variable $ X $ is $ \sum_{k=1}^n \frac{1}{k!} $.

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.

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.

Let $p_n(k)$ be the number of permutations of the set $\{1,2,3,\ldots,n\}$ which have exactly $k$ fixed points. Prove that $\sum_{k=0}^nk p_n(k)=n!$.

Let $p{}$ be an odd prime number. Determine whether there exists a permutation $a_1,\ldots,a_p$ of $1,\ldots,p$ satisfying \[(i-j)a_k+(j-k)a_i+(k-i)a_j\neq 0,\] for all pairwise distinct $i,j,k.$

A prime number has the property that however its decimal digits are permuted, the obtained number is also prime. Prove that this number has at most three different digits. Also prove a stronger statement.

Dene the set $F$ as the following: $F = \{(a_1,a_2,... , a_{2006}) : \forall i = 1, 2,..., 2006, a_i \in \{-1,1\}\}$ Prove that there exists a subset of $F$, called $S$ which satises the following: $|S| = 2006$ and for all $(a_1,a_2,... , a_{2006})\in F$ there exists $(b_1,b_2,... , b_{2006}) \in S$, such that $\Sigma_{i=1} ^{2006}a_ib_i = 0$.

King Radford of Peiza is hosting a banquet in his palace. The King has an enormous circular table with $2021$ chairs around it. At The King's birthday celebration, he is sitting in his throne (one of the $2021$ chairs) and the other $2020$ chairs are filled with guests, with the shortest guest sitting to the King's left and the remaining guests seated in increasing order of height from there around the table. The King announces that everybody else must get up from their chairs, run around the table, and sit back down in some chair. After doing this, The King notices that the person seated to his left is different from the person who was previously seated to his left. Each other person at the table also notices that the person sitting to their left is different. Find a closed form expression for the number of ways the people could be sitting around the table at the end. You may use the notation $D_{n},$ the number of derangements of a set of size $n$, as part of your expression.

Let $ {{a} _ {1}}, {{a} _ {2}}, \ldots, {{a} _ {n}} $ be permutation of numbers $ 1,2, \ldots, n $, where $ n \geq 2 $. Find the maximum value of the sum $$ S (n) = | {{a} _ {1}} - {{a} _ {2}} | + | {{a} _ {2}} - {{a} _ {3}} | + \cdots + | {{a} _ {n-1}} - {{a} _ {n}} |. $$

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)$$.

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]

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]

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 $n$.

For a permutation $p = (a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_9)$ of the digits $1,2,\ldots,9$, let $s(p)$ denote the sum of the three $3$-digit numbers $a_1a_2a_3$, $a_4a_5a_6$, and $a_7a_8a_9$. Let $m$ be the minimum value of $s(p)$ subject to the condition that the units digit of $s(p)$ is $0$. Let $n$ denote the number of permutations $p$ with $s(p) = m$. Find $|m - n|$.

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]

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]

Let $p$ and $q$ be mutually prime natural numbers greater than $1$. Starting with the permutation $(1, 2, . . . , n)$, in one move we can switch the places of two numbers if their difference is $p$ or $q$. Prove that with such moves we can get any another permutation if and only if $n \ge p + q - 1$.

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]

A permutation f of the set of integers is called bounded if | x - f (x) | is bounded. Bounded permutations with permutation multiplication form a group W. Show that the additive group of rational numbers is not isomorphic to any subgroup of W.

Consider two finite sequences of real numbers \( a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n \) and \( b_1, b_2, \dots, b_n \). Let \( \alpha(x) = \#\{i | a_i = x \} \) and \( \beta(x) = \#\{i | b_i = -x \} \). Prove that there exists a permutation \( \sigma \in S_n \) (the symmetric group of \( n \) elements) such that \( a_{\sigma(i)} + b_i \neq 0 \) for all \( i = 1, \dots, n \) if and only if \( \alpha(x) + \beta(x) \leq n \) for all \( x \in \mathbb{R} \).

Let $M_n$ be the set of permutations $\sigma\in S_n$ for which there exists $\tau\in S_n$ such that the numbers \[\sigma (1)+\tau(1),\, \sigma(2)+\tau(2),\ldots,\sigma(n)+\tau(n),\] are consecutive. Show that \((M_n\neq \emptyset\Leftrightarrow n\text{ is odd})\) and in this case for each $\sigma_1,\sigma_2\in M_n$ the following equality holds: \[\sum_{k=1}^n k\sigma_1(k)=\sum_{k=1}^n k\sigma_2(k).\] [i]Dan Schwarz[/i]

Let $a_1 ,a_2 ,\ldots, a_n$ be a permutation of the integers $1,2,\ldots, n.$ Call $a_i$ a [i]big[/i] integer if $a_i >a_j$ for all $i<j.$ Find the mean number of big integers over all permutations on the first $n$ postive integers.

For each positive integer $n$, let $a_n$ be the number of permutations $\tau$ of $\{1, 2, ... , n\}$ such that $\tau (\tau (\tau (x))) = x$ for $x = 1, 2, ..., n$. The first few values are $a_1 = 1, a_2 = 1, a_3 = 3, a_4 = 9$. Prove that $3^{334}$ divides $a_{2001}$. (A permutation of $\{1, 2, ... , n\}$ is a rearrangement of the numbers $\{1, 2, ... , n\}$ or equivalently, a one-to-one and onto function from $\{1, 2, ... , n\}$ to $\{1, 2, ... , n\}$. For example, one permutation of $\{1, 2, 3\}$ is the rearrangement $\{2, 1, 3\}$, which is equivalent to the function $\sigma : \{1, 2, 3\} \to \{1, 2, 3\}$ defined by $\sigma (1) = 2, \sigma (2) = 1, \sigma (3) = 3$.)

What is the largest possible value of $|a_1 - 1| + |a_2-2|+...+ |a_n- n|$ where $a_1, a_2,..., a_n$ is a permutation of $1,2,..., n$?

$x_1, x_2, ... , x_8$ is a permutation of $1, 2, ..., 8$. A move is to take $x_3$ or $x_8$ and place it at the start to from a new sequence. Show that by a sequence of moves we can always arrive at $1, 2, ..., 8$.