15. Let $a_{n}$ denote the number of ternary strings of length $n$ so that there does not exist a $k<n$ such that the first $k$ digits of the string equals the last $k$ digits. What is the largest integer $m$ such that $3^{m} \mid a_{2023}$ ?

The equation $$t^4+at^3+bt^2=(a+b)(2t-1)$$ has $4$ positive real roots $t_1<t_2<t_3<t_4$. Show that $t_1t_4>t_2t_3$.

Andy wishes to open an electronic lock with a keypad containing all digits from $0$ to $9$. He knows that the password registered in the system is $2469$. Unfortunately, he is also aware that exactly two different buttons (but he does not know which ones) $\underline{a}$ and $\underline{b}$ on the keypad are broken $-$ when $\underline{a}$ is pressed the digit $b$ is registered in the system, and when $\underline{b}$ is pressed the digit $a$ is registered in the system. Find the least number of attempts Andy needs to surely be able to open the lock. [i]Proposed by Andrew Wen[/i]

You are given $n \ge 2$ distinct positive integers. For every pair $a<b$ of them, Vlada writes on the board the largest power of $2$ that divides $b-a$. At most how many distinct powers of $2$ could Vlada have written? [i]Proposed by Oleksiy Masalitin[/i]

[u]Round 1[/u] [b]p1.[/b] Ten children arrive at a birthday party and leave their shoes by the door. All the children have different shoe sizes. Later, as they leave one at a time, each child randomly grabs a pair of shoes their size or larger. After some kids have left, all of the remaining shoes are too small for any of the remaining children. What is the greatest number of shoes that might remain by the door? [b]p2.[/b] Turans, the king of Saturn, invented a new language for his people. The alphabet has only $6$ letters: A, N, R, S, T, U; however, the alphabetic order is different than in English. A word is any sequence of $6$ different letters. In the dictionary for this language, the first word is SATURN. Which word follows immediately after TURANS? [b]p3.[/b] Benji chooses five integers. For each pair of these numbers, he writes down the pair's sum. Can all ten sums end with different digits? [b]p4.[/b] Nine dwarves live in a house with nine rooms arranged in a $3\times3$ square. On Monday morning, each dwarf rubs noses with the dwarves in the adjacent rooms that share a wall. On Monday night, all the dwarves switch rooms. On Tuesday morning, they again rub noses with their adjacent neighbors. On Tuesday night, they move again. On Wednesday morning, they rub noses for the last time. Show that there are still two dwarves who haven't rubbed noses with one another. [b]p5.[/b] Anna and Bobby take turns placing rooks in any empty square of a pyramid-shaped board with $100$ rows and $200$ columns. If a player places a rook in a square that can be attacked by a previously placed rook, he or she loses. Anna goes first. Can Bobby win no matter how well Anna plays? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/7/5/b253b655b6740b1e1310037da07a0df4dc9914.png[/img] [u]Round 2[/u] [b]p6.[/b] Some boys and girls, all of different ages, had a snowball fight. Each girl threw one snowball at every kid who was older than her. Each boy threw one snowball at every kid who was younger than him. Three friends were hit by the same number of snowballs, and everyone else took fewer hits than they did. Prove that at least one of the three is a girl. [b]p7.[/b] Last year, jugglers from around the world travelled to Jakarta to participate in the Jubilant Juggling Jamboree. The festival lasted $32$ days, with six solo performances scheduled each day. The organizers noticed that for any two days, there was exactly one juggler scheduled to perform on both days. No juggler performed more than once on a single day. Prove there was a juggler who performed every day. PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Three similar acute-angled triangles $AC_1B, BA_1C$ and $CB_1A$ are constructed on the outer side of the acute-angled triangle $ABC$. (Equal triples of the angles are $AB_1C, ABC_1, A_1BC$ and $BA_1C, BAC_1, B_1AC$.) a) Prove that the circles circumscribed around the outer triangles intersect in one point. b) Prove that the straight lines $AA_1, BB_1$ and $CC_1$ intersect in the same point

Let $n$ be a positive integer. The following $35$ multiplication are performed: $$1 \cdot n, 2 \cdot n, \dots, 35 \cdot n.$$ Show that in at least one of these results the digit $7$ appears at least once.

On side $AB$ of triangle $ABC$, points $M$ and $K$ are taken ($M$ on segment $AK$). It is known that $AM: MK: MB = a: b: c$. Straight lines $CM$ and $CK$ intersect for the second time the circumscribed circle of the triangle $ABC$ at points $E$ and $F$, respectively. In what ratio does the circumscribed circle of the triangle $BMF$ divide the segment $BE$?

$a_1,a_2,...,a_{100}$ are permutation of $1,2,...,100$. $S_1=a_1, S_2=a_1+a_2,...,S_{100}=a_1+a_2+...+a_{100}$Find the maximum number of perfect squares from $S_i$

Let $p(x)=x^4-4x^3+2x^2+ax+b$. Suppose that for every root $\lambda$ of $p$, $\frac{1}{\lambda}$ is also a root of $p$. Then $a+b=$ [list=1] [*] -3 [*] -6 [*] -4 [*] -8 [/list]

Given points $M$ and $N$, the bases of heights $AM$ and $BN$ of $\vartriangle ABC$ and the line to which the side $AB$ belongs. Construct $\vartriangle ABC$.

Find all positive integers $n$ such that the number \[A=\sqrt{\frac{9n-1}{n+7}}\] is rational.

Let $p_{n}$ again denote the $n$th prime number. Show that the infinite series \[\sum^{\infty}_{n=1}\frac{1}{p_{n}}\] diverges.

Compute the value of $1^{25}+2^{24}+3^{23}+\ldots+24^2+25^1$. If your answer is $A$ and the correct answer is $C$, then your score on this problem will be $\left\lfloor25\min\left(\left(\frac AC\right)^2,\left(\frac CA\right)^2\right)\right\rfloor$.

Find the smallest positive number $\lambda$ such that for an arbitrary $12$ points on the plane $P_1,P_2,...P_{12}$ (points may coincide), with distance between arbitrary two of them does not exceeds $1$, holds the inequality $\sum_{1\le i\le j\le 12} P_iP_j^2 \le \lambda$

[b]p1.[/b] What is $\sqrt[2015]{2^01^5}$? [b]p2.[/b] What is the ratio of the area of square $ABCD$ to the area of square $ACEF$? [b]p3.[/b] $2015$ in binary is $11111011111$, which is a palindrome. What is the last year which also had this property? [b]p4.[/b] What is the next number in the following geometric series: $1020100$, $10303010$, $104060401$? [b]p5.[/b] A circle has radius $A$ and area $r$. If $A = r^2\pi$, then what is the diameter, $C$, of the circle? [b]p6.[/b] If $$O + N + E = 1$$ $$T + H + R + E + E = 3$$ $$N + I + N + E = 9$$ $$T + E + N = 10$$ $$T + H + I + R + T + E + E + N = 13$$ Then what is the value of $O$? [b]p7.[/b] By shifting the initial digit, which is $6$, of the positive integer $N$ to the end (for example, $65$ becomes $56$), we obtain a number equal to $\frac{N}{4}$ . What is the smallest such $N$? [b]p8.[/b] What is $\sqrt[3]{\frac{2015!(2013!)+2014!(2012!)}{2013!(2012!)}}$ ? [b]p9.[/b] How many permutations of the digits of $1234$ are divisible by $11$? [b]p10.[/b] If you choose $4$ cards from a normal $52$ card deck (with replacement), what is the probability that you will get exactly one of each suit (there are $4$ suits)? [b]p11.[/b] If $LMT$ is an equilateral triangle, and $MATH$ is a square, such that point $A$ is in the triangle, then what is $HL/AL$? [b]p12.[/b] If $$\begin{tabular}{cccccccc} & & & & & L & H & S\\ + & & & & H & I & G & H \\ + & & S & C & H & O & O & L \\ \hline = & & S & O & C & O & O & L \\ \end{tabular}$$ and $\{M, A, T,H, S, L,O, G, I,C\} = \{0, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9\} $, then what is the ordered pair $(M + A +T + H, [T + e + A +M])$ where $e$ is $2.718...$and $[n]$ is the greatest integer less than or equal to $n$ ? [b]p13.[/b] There are $5$ marbles in a bag. One is red, one is blue, one is green, one is yellow, and the last is white. There are $4$ people who take turns reaching into the bag and drawing out a marble without replacement. If the marble they draw out is green, they get to draw another marble out of the bag. What is the probability that the $3$rd person to draw a marble gets the white marble? [b]p14.[/b] Let a "palindromic product" be a product of numbers which is written the same when written back to front, including the multiplication signs. For example, $234 * 545 * 432$, $2 * 2 *2 *2$, and $14 * 41$ are palindromic products whereas $2 *14 * 4 * 12$, $567 * 567$, and $2* 2 * 3* 3 *2$ are not. 2015 can be written as a "palindromic product" in two ways, namely $13 * 5 * 31$ and $31 * 5 * 13$. How many ways can you write $2016$ as a palindromic product without using 1 as a factor? [b]p15.[/b] Let a sequence be defined as $S_n = S_{n-1} + 2S_{n-2}$, and $S_1 = 3$ and $S_2 = 4$. What is $\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{S_n}{3^n}$ ? [b]p16.[/b] Put the numbers $0-9$ in some order so that every $2$-digit substring creates a number which is either a multiple of $7$, or a power of $2$. [b]p17.[/b] Evaluate $\dfrac{8+ \dfrac{8+ \dfrac{8+...}{3+...}}{3+ \dfrac{8+...}{3+...}}}{3+\dfrac{8+ \dfrac{8+...}{3+...}}{ 3+ \dfrac{8+...}{3+...}}}$, assuming that it is a positive real number. [b]p18.[/b] $4$ non-overlapping triangles, each of area $A$, are placed in a unit circle. What is the maximum value of $A$? [b]p19.[/b] What is the sum of the reciprocals of all the (positive integer) factors of $120$ (including $1$ and $120$ itself). [b]p20.[/b] How many ways can you choose $3$ distinct elements of $\{1, 2, 3,...,4000\}$ to make an increasing arithmetic series? PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Let $ABC$ be a triangle, $E$ and $F$ the points where the incircle and $A$-excircle touch $AB$, and $D$ the point on $BC$ such that the triangles $ABD$ and $ACD$ have equal in-radii. The lines $DB$ and $DE$ intersect the circumcircle of triangle $ADF$ again in the points $X$ and $Y$. Prove that $XY\parallel AB$ if and only if $AB=AC$.

The sides of a triangle are in the ratio $ 6: 8: 9$. Then: $ \textbf{(A)}\ \text{the triangle is obtuse} \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \text{the angles are in the ratio } 6: 8: 9$ $ \textbf{(C)}\ \text{the triangle is acute}$ $ \textbf{(D)}\ \text{the angle opposite the largest side is double the angle opposite the smallest side}$ $ \textbf{(E)}\ \text{none of these}$

Let $a$ and $b$ be two integers which are coprime and let $n$ be one variable integer. Determine probability that number of solutions $(x,y)$, where $x$ and $y$ are nonnegative integers, of equation $ax+by=n$ is $\left\lfloor \frac{n}{ab} \right\rfloor + 1$

A cubic polynomial $f$ with a positive leading coefficient has three different positive zeros. Show that $f'(a)+ f'(b)+ f'(c) > 0$.

\[\int_0^1 \frac{(x+1)\log(x)}{x^3-1}\,\mathrm dx\] [i]Proposed by Vlad Oleksenko[/i]

Find the largest possible value in the real numbers of the term $$\frac{3x^2 + 16xy + 15y^2}{x^2 + y^2}$$ with $x^2 + y^2 \ne 0$.

Each of the cells of a table 2014 x 2014 is colored in white or black. It is known that each square 2 x 2 contains an even number of black cells and each cross (3 x 3 square without its corner cells) contains an odd number of black cells. Prove that the 4 corner cells of the table are in the same color.

Let define a function $f: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ such that : $i)$$f(p)=1$ for all prime numbers $p$. $ii)$$f(xy)=xf(y)+yf(x)$ for all positive integers $x,y$ find the smallest $n \geq 2016$ such that $f(n)=n$

Let $a,b,c$ and $d$ be positive real numbers such that $a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2 \ge 4$. Prove that $$(a+b)^3+(c+d)^3+2(a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2) \ge 4(ab+bc+cd+da+ac+bd)$$