Let $n$ and $t$ be positive integers. What is the number of ways to place $t$ dominoes $(1\times 2$ or $2\times 1$ rectangles) in a $2\times n$ table so that there is no $2\times 2$ square formed by $2$ dominoes and each $2\times 3$ rectangle either does not have a horizontal domino in the middle and last cell in the first row or does not have a horizontal domino in the first and middle cell in the second row (or both)?

Let $f(n)$ be the number of ways to write $n$ as a sum of powers of $2$, where we keep track of the order of the summation. For example, $f(4)=6$ because $4$ can be written as $4$, $2+2$, $2+1+1$, $1+2+1$, $1+1+2$, and $1+1+1+1$. Find the smallest $n$ greater than $2013$ for which $f(n)$ is odd.

Let $ a, b \in \mathbb{N}$ with $ 1 \leq a \leq b,$ and $ M \equal{} \left[\frac {a \plus{} b}{2} \right].$ Define a function $ f: \mathbb{Z} \mapsto \mathbb{Z}$ by \[ f(n) \equal{} \begin{cases} n \plus{} a, & \text{if } n \leq M, \\ n \minus{} b, & \text{if } n >M. \end{cases} \] Let $ f^1(n) \equal{} f(n),$ $ f_{i \plus{} 1}(n) \equal{} f(f^i(n)),$ $ i \equal{} 1, 2, \ldots$ Find the smallest natural number $ k$ such that $ f^k(0) \equal{} 0.$

A solitaire game is played as follows. Six distinct pairs of matched tiles are placed in a bag. The player randomly draws tiles one at a time from the bag and retains them, except that matching tiles are put aside as soon as they appear in the player's hand. The game ends if the player ever holds three tiles, no two of which match; otherwise the drawing continues until the bag is empty. The probability that the bag will be emptied is $p/q,$ where $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $p+q.$

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations $a_1$, $a_2$, $\dots a_n$ of the sequence $1$, $2$, $\dots$ , $n$ satisfying $$a_1 \le 2a_2\le 3a_3 \le \dots \le na_n$$. Proposed by United Kingdom

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations $a_1$, $a_2$, $\dots a_n$ of the sequence $1$, $2$, $\dots$ , $n$ satisfying $$a_1 \le 2a_2\le 3a_3 \le \dots \le na_n$$. Proposed by United Kingdom

There are four basketball players $A,B,C,D$. Initially the ball is with $A$. The ball is always passed from one person to a different person. In how many ways can the ball come back to $A$ after $\textbf{seven}$ moves? (for example $A\rightarrow C\rightarrow B\rightarrow D\rightarrow A\rightarrow B\rightarrow C\rightarrow A$, or $A\rightarrow D\rightarrow A\rightarrow D\rightarrow C\rightarrow A\rightarrow B\rightarrow A)$.

Prove that the number $\left\lfloor\left(5+\sqrt{35}\right)^{2n-1}\right\rfloor$ is divisible by $10^n$ for each $n\in\mathbb N$.

Let $x_{1}$ be a positive real number and for every integer $n \geq 1$ let $x_{n+1} = 1 + x_{1}x_{2}\ldots x_{n-1}x_{n}$. If $x_{5} = 43$, what is the sum of digits of the largest prime factors of $x_{6}$?

Define the two sequences $a_0, a_1, a_2, \cdots$ and $b_0, b_1, b_2, \cdots$ by $a_0 = 3$ and $b_0 = 1$ with the recurrence relations $a_{n+1} = 3a_n + b_n$ and $b_{n+1} = 3b_n - a_n$ for all nonnegative integers $n.$ Let $r$ and $s$ be the remainders when $a_{32}$ and $b_{32}$ are divided by $31,$ respectively. Compute $100r + s.$

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations $a_1$, $a_2$, $\dots a_n$ of the sequence $1$, $2$, $\dots$ , $n$ satisfying $$a_1 \le 2a_2\le 3a_3 \le \dots \le na_n$$. Proposed by United Kingdom

The integer sequence $(s_i)$ "having pattern 2016'" is defined as follows:\\ $\circ$ The first member $s_1$ is 2.\\ $\circ$ The second member $s_2$ is the least positive integer exceeding $s_1$ and having digit 0 in its decimal notation.\\ $\circ$ The third member $s_3$ is the least positive integer exceeding $s_2$ and having digit 1 in its decimal notation.\\ $\circ$ The third member $s_3$ is the least positive integer exceeding $s_2$ and having digit 6 in its decimal notation.\\ The following members are defined in the same way. The required digits change periodically: $2 \rightarrow 0 \rightarrow 1 \rightarrow 6 \rightarrow 2 \rightarrow 0 \rightarrow \ldots$. The first members of this sequence are the following: $2; 10; 11; 16; 20; 30; 31; 36; 42; 50$. What are the 4 numbers that immediately follow $s_k = 2016$ in this sequence?

Let $n \geq 3$ be a positive integer. A [i]chipped $n$-board[/i] is a $2 \times n$ checkerboard with the bottom left square removed. Lino wants to tile a chipped $n$-board and is allowed to use the following types of tiles: [list] [*] Type 1: any $1 \times k$ board where $1 \leq k \leq n$ [*] Type 2: any chipped $k$-board where $1 \leq k \leq n$ that must cover the left-most tile of the $2 \times n$ checkerboard. [/list] Two tilings $T_1$ and $T_2$ are considered the same if there is a set of consecutive Type 1 tiles in both rows of $T_1$ that can be vertically swapped to obtain the tiling $T_2$. For example, the following three tilings of a chipped $7$-board are the same: [img]http://i.imgur.com/8QaSgc0.png[/img] For any positive integer $n$ and any positive integer $1 \leq m \leq 2n - 1$, let $c_{m,n}$ be the number of distinct tilings of a chipped $n$-board using exactly $m$ tiles (any combination of tile types may be used), and define the polynomial $$P_n(x) = \sum^{2n-1}_{m=1} c_{m,n}x^m.$$ Find, with justification, polynomials $f(x)$ and $g(x)$ such that $$P_n(x) = f(x)P_{n-1}(x) + g(x)P_{n-2}(x)$$ for all $n \geq 3$.

The rows $x_n$ and $y_n$ of positive real numbers are such that: $x_{n+1}=x_n+\frac{1}{2y_n}$ and $y_{n+1}=y_n+\frac{1}{2x_n}$ for each positive integer $n$. Prove that at least one of the numbers $x_{2018}$ and $y_{2018}$ is bigger than 44,9

Suppose that $a_1 = 2$ and the sequence $(a_n)$ satisfies the recurrence relation \[\frac{a_n -1}{n-1}=\frac{a_{n-1}+1}{(n-1)+1}\] for all $n \ge 2.$ What is the greatest integer less than or equal to \[\sum^{100}_{n=1} a_n^2?\] $\textbf{(A) } 338{,}550 \qquad \textbf{(B) } 338{,}551 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 338{,}552 \qquad \textbf{(D) } 338{,}553 \qquad \textbf{(E) } 338{,}554$

Let $ a, b \in \mathbb{N}$ with $ 1 \leq a \leq b,$ and $ M \equal{} \left[\frac {a \plus{} b}{2} \right].$ Define a function $ f: \mathbb{Z} \mapsto \mathbb{Z}$ by \[ f(n) \equal{} \begin{cases} n \plus{} a, & \text{if } n \leq M, \\ n \minus{} b, & \text{if } n >M. \end{cases} \] Let $ f^1(n) \equal{} f(n),$ $ f_{i \plus{} 1}(n) \equal{} f(f^i(n)),$ $ i \equal{} 1, 2, \ldots$ Find the smallest natural number $ k$ such that $ f^k(0) \equal{} 0.$

Denote by $l(n)$ the largest prime divisor of $n$. Let $a_{n+1} = a_n + l(a_n)$ be a recursively defined sequence of integers with $a_1 = 2$. Determine all natural numbers $m$ such that there exists some $i \in \mathbb{N}$ with $a_i = m^2$. [i]Proposed by Nikola Velov, North Macedonia[/i]

Let $n$ be a nonnegative integer. Determine the number of ways that one can choose $(n+1)^2$ sets $S_{i,j}\subseteq\{1,2,\ldots,2n\}$, for integers $i,j$ with $0\leq i,j\leq n$, such that: [list] [*] for all $0\leq i,j\leq n$, the set $S_{i,j}$ has $i+j$ elements; and [*] $S_{i,j}\subseteq S_{k,l}$ whenever $0\leq i\leq k\leq n$ and $0\leq j\leq l\leq n$. [/list] [i]Proposed by Ricky Liu[/i]

For a given positive integer $n$, you may perform a series of steps. At each step, you may apply an operation: you may increase your number by one, or if your number is divisible by 2, you may divide your number by 2. Let $\ell(n)$ be the minimum number of operations needed to transform the number $n$ to 1 (for example, $\ell(1) = 0$ and $\ell(7) = 4$). How many positive integers $n$ are there such that $\ell(n) \leq 12$?

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations $a_1$, $a_2$, $\dots a_n$ of the sequence $1$, $2$, $\dots$ , $n$ satisfying $$a_1 \le 2a_2\le 3a_3 \le \dots \le na_n$$. Proposed by United Kingdom

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations $a_1$, $a_2$, $\dots a_n$ of the sequence $1$, $2$, $\dots$ , $n$ satisfying $$a_1 \le 2a_2\le 3a_3 \le \dots \le na_n$$. Proposed by United Kingdom

The row $x_1, x_2,…$ is defined by the following recursion $x_1=1$ and $x_{n+1}=x_n+\sqrt{x_n}$ Prove that $\sum_{n=1}^{2018}{\frac{1}{x_n}}<3$.

A sequence of numbers is defined recursively by $a_1 = 1$, $a_2 = \frac{3}{7}$, and $$a_n=\frac{a_{n-2} \cdot a_{n-1}}{2a_{n-2} - a_{n-1}}$$for all $n \geq 3$ Then $a_{2019}$ can be written as $\frac{p}{q}$, where $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime positive inegers. What is $p+q ?$ $\textbf{(A) } 2020 \qquad\textbf{(B) } 4039 \qquad\textbf{(C) } 6057 \qquad\textbf{(D) } 6061 \qquad\textbf{(E) } 8078$

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations $a_1$, $a_2$, $\dots a_n$ of the sequence $1$, $2$, $\dots$ , $n$ satisfying $$a_1 \le 2a_2\le 3a_3 \le \dots \le na_n$$. Proposed by United Kingdom

Determine all functions $f$ from the reals to the reals for which (1) $f(x)$ is strictly increasing and (2) $f(x) + g(x) = 2x$ for all real $x$, where $g(x)$ is the composition inverse function to $f(x)$. (Note: $f$ and $g$ are said to be composition inverses if $f(g(x)) = x$ and $g(f(x)) = x$ for all real $x$.)