Let $(a_n)_{n\ge1}$ be a sequence given by \begin{align*} a_1 &= 1, \\ a_{2^k+j} &= -a_j\text{ for any } k\ge0,1\le j\le 2^k. \end{align*} Show that the sequence is not periodic.

Let $ R_1,R_2, \ldots$ be the family of finite sequences of positive integers defined by the following rules: $ R_1 \equal{} (1),$ and if $ R_{n - 1} \equal{} (x_1, \ldots, x_s),$ then \[ R_n \equal{} (1, 2, \ldots, x_1, 1, 2, \ldots, x_2, \ldots, 1, 2, \ldots, x_s, n).\] For example, $ R_2 \equal{} (1, 2),$ $ R_3 \equal{} (1, 1, 2, 3),$ $ R_4 \equal{} (1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4).$ Prove that if $ n > 1,$ then the $ k$th term from the left in $ R_n$ is equal to 1 if and only if the $ k$th term from the right in $ R_n$ is different from 1.

A sequence $x_1, x_2, \ldots$ is defined by $x_1 = 1$ and $x_{2k}=-x_k, x_{2k-1} = (-1)^{k+1}x_k$ for all $k \geq 1.$ Prove that $\forall n \geq 1$ $x_1 + x_2 + \ldots + x_n \geq 0.$ [i]Proposed by Gerhard Wöginger, Austria[/i]

Let $a_1,a_2, a_3,...$ be a sequence of real numbers which satisfy the relation $a_{n+1} =\sqrt{a_n^2 + 1}$ Suppose that there exists a positive integer $n_0$ such that $a_{2n_0} = 3a_{n_0}$ . Find the value of $a_{46}$.

The sequence of real numbers $a_0,a_1,a_2,\ldots$ is defined recursively by \[a_0=-1,\qquad\sum_{k=0}^n\dfrac{a_{n-k}}{k+1}=0\quad\text{for}\quad n\geq 1.\]Show that $ a_{n} > 0$ for all $ n\geq 1$. [i]Proposed by Mariusz Skalba, Poland[/i]

Let the sequence of rationals $x_1,x_2,\dots$ be defined such that $x_1=\frac{25}{11}$ and \[x_{k+1}=\frac{1}{3}\left(x_k+\frac{1}{x_k}-1\right).\] $x_{2025}$ can be expressed as $\frac{m}{n}$ for relatively prime positive integers $m$ and $n$. Find the remainder when $m+n$ is divided by $1000$.

Let be a number $ a\in \left[ 1,\infty \right) $ and a function $ f\in\mathcal{C}^2(-a,a) . $ Show that the sequence $$ \left( \sum_{k=1}^n f\left( \frac{k}{n^2} \right) \right)_{n\ge 1} $$ is convergent, and determine its limit.

Let the sequence $ a(n), n \equal{} 1,2,3, \ldots$ be generated as follows with $ a(1) \equal{} 0,$ and for $ n > 1:$ \[ a(n) \equal{} a\left( \left \lfloor \frac{n}{2} \right \rfloor \right) \plus{} (\minus{}1)^{\frac{n(n\plus{}1)}{2}}.\] 1.) Determine the maximum and minimum value of $ a(n)$ over $ n \leq 1996$ and find all $ n \leq 1996$ for which these extreme values are attained. 2.) How many terms $ a(n), n \leq 1996,$ are equal to 0?

Suppose $x_1,x_2,x_3,\dotsc$ is a strictly decreasing sequence of positive real numbers such that the series $x_1+x_2+x_3+\cdots$ diverges. Is it necessary true that the series $\sum_{n=2}^{\infty}{\min \left\{ x_n,\frac{1}{n\log (n)}\right\} }$ diverges?

We’re playing a game with a sequence of $2008$ non-negative integers. A move consists of picking a integer $b$ from that sequence, of which the neighbours $a$ and $c$ are positive. We then replace $a, b$ and $c$ by $a - 1, b + 7$ and $c - 1$ respectively. It is not allowed to pick the first or the last integer in the sequence, since they only have one neighbour. If there is no integer left such that both of its neighbours are positive, then there is no move left, and the game ends. Prove that the game always ends, regardless of the sequence of integers we begin with, and regardless of the moves we make.

Let $a_n = 2^{n-1}$ for $n > 0$. Let \[ b_n = \sum\limits_{r+s \leq n} a_ra_s \] Find $b_n-b_{n-1}$, $b_n-2b_{n-1}$ and $b_n$.

Numbers $-1011, -1010, \ldots, -1, 1, \ldots, 1011$ in some order form the sequence $a_1,a_2,\ldots, a_{2022}$. Find the maximum possible value of the sum $$|a_1|+|a_1+a_2|+\ldots+|a_1+\ldots+a_{2022}|$$

Find all positive integers $n$ such that there exists a sequence of positive integers $a_1$, $a_2$,$\ldots$, $a_n$ satisfying: \[a_{k+1}=\frac{a_k^2+1}{a_{k-1}+1}-1\] for every $k$ with $2\leq k\leq n-1$. [i]Proposed by North Korea[/i]

Let $X$ be a finite set of real numbers. For any $x,x' \in X$ with $x<x'$, define a function $f(x,x')$, then $f$ is called an ordered pair function on $X$. For any given ordered pair function $f$ on $X$, if there exist elements $x_1 <x_2 <\cdots<x_k$ in $X$ such that $f(x_1 ,x_2 ) \le f(x_2 ,x_3 ) \le \cdots \le f(x_{k-1} ,x_k )$, then $x_1 ,x_2 ,\cdots,x_k$ is called an $f$-ascending sequence of length $k$ in $X$. Similarly, define an $f$-descending sequence of length $l$ in $X$. For integers $k,l \ge 3$, let $h(k,l)$ denote the smallest positive integer such that for any set $X$ of $s$ real numbers and any ordered pair function $f$ on $X$, there either exists an $f$-ascending sequence of length $k$ in $X$ or an $f$-descending sequence of length $l$ in $X$ if $s \ge h(k,l)$. Prove: 1.For $k,l>3,h(k,l) \le h(k-1,l)+h(k,l-1)-1$; 2.$h(k,l) \le \binom{l-2}{k+l-4} +1$.

Let $ \{a_k\}^{\infty}_1$ be a sequence of non-negative real numbers such that: \[ a_k \minus{} 2 a_{k \plus{} 1} \plus{} a_{k \plus{} 2} \geq 0 \] and $ \sum^k_{j \equal{} 1} a_j \leq 1$ for all $ k \equal{} 1,2, \ldots$. Prove that: \[ 0 \leq a_{k} \minus{} a_{k \plus{} 1} < \frac {2}{k^2} \] for all $ k \equal{} 1,2, \ldots$.

Let $n$ be a positive integer, and consider a sequence $a_1 , a_2 , \dotsc , a_n $ of positive integers. Extend it periodically to an infinite sequence $a_1 , a_2 , \dotsc $ by defining $a_{n+i} = a_i $ for all $i \ge 1$. If \[a_1 \le a_2 \le \dots \le a_n \le a_1 +n \] and \[a_{a_i } \le n+i-1 \quad\text{for}\quad i=1,2,\dotsc, n, \] prove that \[a_1 + \dots +a_n \le n^2. \]

Let ${(a_n)}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ and ${(b_n)}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ be real squences such that $a_0=40$, $b_0=41$ and for all $n\geq 0$ the given equalities hold. $$a_{n+1}=a_n+\frac{1}{b_n} \hspace{0.5 cm} \text{and} \hspace{0.5 cm} b_{n+1}=b_n+\frac{1}{a_n}$$ Find the least possible positive integer value of $k$ such that the value of $a_k$ is strictly bigger than $80$.

Let $k$ be a positive integer, let $z_1,z_2, \ldots, z_k \in \mathbb{C}$ be distinct and let $u_1,u_2,\ldots,u_k \in \mathbb{C}$ be such that the set $\big\{a_n=u_1z_1^n+u_2z_2^n+\ldots+u_kz_k^n : n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} \big\}$ is finite. Prove that there exists a positive integer $p$ such that $a_n=a_{n+p},$ for any positive integer $n.$

Let $(F_n)_{n\geq 1} $ be the Fibonacci sequence $F_1 = F_2 = 1, F_{n+2} = F_{n+1} + F_n (n \geq 1),$ and $P(x)$ the polynomial of degree $990$ satisfying \[ P(k) = F_k, \qquad \text{ for } k = 992, . . . , 1982.\] Prove that $P(1983) = F_{1983} - 1.$

Determine all positive integers $M$ such that the sequence $a_0, a_1, a_2, \cdots$ defined by \[ a_0 = M + \frac{1}{2} \qquad \textrm{and} \qquad a_{k+1} = a_k\lfloor a_k \rfloor \quad \textrm{for} \, k = 0, 1, 2, \cdots \] contains at least one integer term.

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Consider sequences $a_0, a_1, ..., a_k$ and $b_0, b_1,,..,b_k$ such that $a_0 = b_0 = 1$ and $a_k = b_k = n$ and such that for all $i$ such that $1 \le i \le k $, we have that $(a_i, b_i)$ is either equal to $(1 + a_{i-1}, b_{i-1})$ or $(a_{i-1}; 1 + b_{i-1})$. Consider for $1 \le i \le k$ the number $c_i = \begin{cases} a_i \,\,\, if \,\,\, a_i = a_{i-1} \\ b_i \,\,\, if \,\,\, b_i = b_{i-1}\end{cases}$ Show that $c_1 + c_2 + ... + c_k = n^2 - 1$.

The Fibonacci sequence is defined by $F_1 = F_2 = 1$ and $F_{n+2} = F_{n+1}+F_n$ for every integer $n$. Let $k$ be a fixed integer. A sequence $(a_n)$ of integers is said to be $\textit{phirme}$ if $a_n + a_{n+1} = F_{n+k}$ for all $n \geq 1$. Find all $\textit{phirme}$ sequences in terms of $n$ and $k$.

The sequence $a_1,a_2, ..., a_{2n}$ of integers is such that each number occurs in no more than $n$ times. Prove that there are two strictly increasing sequences of indices $b_1,b_2, ..., b_{n}$ and $c_1,c_2, ..., c_{n}$ are such that every positive integer from the set $\{1,2,...,2n\}$ occurs exactly in one of these two sequences, and for each $1\le i \le n$ is true the condition $a_{b_i} \ne a_{c_i}$ . (Anton Trygub)

The sequence $x_{n}$ is defined by: $x_{0}=1, x_{1}=0, x_{2}=1,x_{3}=1, x_{n+3}=\frac{(n^2+n+1)(n+1)}{n}x_{n+2}+(n^2+n+1)x_{n+1}-\frac{n+1}{n}x_{n} (n=1,2,3..)$ Prove that all members of the sequence are perfect squares.

Determine all sequences $a_0 , a_1 , a_2 , \ldots$ of positive integers with $a_0 \ge 2015$ such that for all integers $n\ge 1$: (i) $a_{n+2}$ is divisible by $a_n$ ; (ii) $|s_{n+1} - (n + 1)a_n | = 1$, where $s_{n+1} = a_{n+1} - a_n + a_{n-1} - \cdots + (-1)^{n+1} a_0$ . [i]Proposed by Pakawut Jiradilok and Warut Suksompong, Thailand[/i]