Solutions Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee

Combinatorics 2021 Mentor Program

C1. Declan is sitting playing a game on a computer. The game is played on a 50 ⇥ 50 square grid.
At the beginning all squares are coloured black. Using the computer mouse, Declan is able to click
any row or any column, upon which each square in that row or column changes colour from black to
white or white to black.

(a) Is it possible for Declan to arrive at a situation where exactly 2010 squares are white?
(b) Is it possible for Declan to arrive at a situation where exactly 2011 squares are white?

Answers (a) Yes (b) No

Solution

(a) Suppose that Declan clicks the first x rows and the first y columns. Then xy + (50 x)(50 y)
squares are black. So we seek to solve the equation

xy + (50 x)(50 y) = 50 ⇥ 50 2010

, 2xy 50x 50y = 2010
, xy 25x 25y = 1005
, (x 25)(y 25) = 380
= 19 ⇥ 20.

Taking x = 6 and y = 45 will do. ⇤

(b) Suppose that Declan clicks a row (column) containing exactly w white squares. After the click
the row (column) contains exactly 50 w white squares which has the same parity as w. Hence
the parity of the total number of white squares in the board never changes. Since the number
of white squares starts out at zero, which is even, the number of white squares remains even,
and so can never reach exactly 2011. ⇤

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Solutions Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
Combinatorics 2021 Mentor Program

C2. Suppose that n > 12 students participate in a 15-question multiple choice mathematics contest.
For each question the score for a correct answer is 1 point. The score for a blank or wrong answer is
0 points. It is known that the total sum of the scores of any 12 students is at least 36 points.
Given this information find the smallest possible value of n for which it is guaranteed that there are
at least 3 students who answer at least 3 of the same questions correctly.

Answer 911
Solution
First let us show that 910 (or less) does not work. There are 15 3
= 455 triples of the 15 questions.
Let students 1 to 455 solve exactly one each of these 455 di↵erent triples of questions. Let student
455 + i solve exactly the same questions as student i for i = 1, 2, . . . , 455. In this way each students
solves exactly 3 questions so that any 12 student do indeed have total score of 36. Also no triple of
students get the same three questions right. To show that any number n less than 910 also does not
work, simply take any subset of size n of the 910 case.
Let us show that 911 does work.
Case 1 All students solve at least three questions
The number of triples of questions solved by the 911 students is at least 911. There are 15 3
= 455
di↵erent possible triples of correct answers to
⌃ 911 ⌥ questions. By the pigeonhole principle one of these
triples is correctly answered by at least 455 = 3 students.
Case 2 There is a student, Alex say, who solved at most 2 questions
At most 10 other students solved at most 3 questions. This is because if 11 others solved at most
three questions, then these 11 along with Alex would have the sum of their scores being at most 35.
It follows that at least 900 students all solved at least four questions each. Each such student solved
at least 43 = 4 di↵erent triples of questions. Thus the number of triples of questions solved by the
900 students is at least 4⇥
⌃ 3600 ⌥ 900 = 3600. By the pigeonhole principle one of these triples is correctly
answered by at least 455 = 8 3 students. ⇤

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Solutions Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
Combinatorics 2021 Mentor Program

C3. In a chess tournament, each player played every other player exactly once. There were no draws
and no player won every match.
Prove that there were three players, A, B and C, such that A beat B, B beat C, and C beat A.

Solution
Interpret the question as a directed graph G, where there is a directed edge from A to B if A lost to
B. It is known that that there is exactly one directed edge between every pair of vertices and that
each vertex has an edge leading away from it. We want to prove that there is a directed 3-cycle.
Pick any vertex A1 and go for a walk around the graph observing the one way signs. Since the graph
is finite, we must eventually repeat a vertex for the first time. By truncating the first part of the
walk, if necessary, this implies that we have a directed cycle, B1 B2 . . . Bk B1 .
Let k 3 be the smallest integer such that there a directed k-cycle B1 B2 . . . Bk B1 .

• If k = 3, we are done.
• If k > 3, consider B1 and B3 .
– If there is a directed edge from B1 to B3 , then B1 B3 B4 . . . Bk is a directed (k 1)-cycle,
contradicting the minimality of k.
– If there is a directed edge from B3 to B1 , then B1 B2 B3 is a directed 3-cycle, and we are
done.

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Solutions Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
Combinatorics 2021 Mentor Program

C4. How many n digit numbers are there whose digits are from the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} if it is required
that any two neighbouring digits di↵er by exactly one?

Answer If xn denotes the answer, then x1 = 5, and for k 1, x2k = 8 ⇥ 3k 1

and x2k+1 = 14 ⇥ 3k 1 .
Solution
Let Sn be the desired set of n digit numbers and let xn = |Sn |. There is a bijective correspondence
on S between numbers whose left most digit is k with numbers whose leftmost digit is 6 k for
k = 1, 2. The correspondence is given by

N $ 66 . . . 6} N.
| {z
n

Thus we may let yn , zn , un , zn and yn be the number of elements of Sn whose leftmost digits are 1,2,
3, 4 and 5, respectively.
We have the relations yn = zn 1 , zn = yn 1 + un 1 and un = 2zn 1 . Thus zn = 3zn 2 . Starting
with z1 = 1 and z2 = 2 we see that z2n = 2 · 3n 1 and z2n+1 = 3n . Substitution for yn and un yields
y2n = 3n 1 , y2n+1 = 2 · 3n 1 , u2n = 2 · 3n 1 and u2n+1 = 4 · 3n 1 .
Hence x2n = 8 · 3n 1 , x2n+1 = 14 · 3n 1
for n = 1, 2 . . ., and x1 = 5. ⇤

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Solutions Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
Combinatorics 2021 Mentor Program

C5. Nancy and Rachel play a game on an n ⇥ n chessboard. Nancy goes first by filling the n squares
in the first row with numbers, one number per square, where each number is either +1 or 1. Then
Rachel fills the second row similarly. Then Nancy the third and so on until all rows are filled. After
this Nancy gets 1 point for each row or column for which the product of the numbers is positive.
Rachel gets 1 point for each row or column for which the product of the numbers is negative.
For each positive integer n what is the minimum number of points that Nancy can guarantee for
herself?

Answer
n
if n ⌘ 0 (mod 4)
2
n+2
if n ⌘ 2 (mod 4)
2
3n + 1
if n ⌘ 1 (mod 4)
2
3n 1
if n ⌘ 3 (mod 4)
2

Solution
Case 1 n = 2k
Nancy can guarantee herself at least k points by filling in all her rows with 1s. Rachel can guarantee
herself at least 3k 1 points by filling in all her rows, except the last with a single 1 and 2k 1 1s
and then filling in each square of the last row so as to win all the columns. This shows that Nancy’s
minimum number of points is either k or k + 1.
Note that the product of all the numbers going via columns is ( 1)2k = +1. Thus the product of the
numbers in the last row is ( 1)k 1 . Thus if k is even, Rachel also wins the last row so that Nancy is
only guaranteed at most k points. If k is odd, then Rachel cannot simultaneously win every column,
and every even numbered row, thus Nancy is guaranteed at least k + 1 points.
Case 2 n = 2k + 1
Nancy can guarantee herself at least k points by filling in all her rows except the last with 1s. Rachel
can guarantee herself at least k points by filling in all her rows with a single 1 and 2k 1s. Nancy
then fills in each square of the last row so as to win all the columns. Thus Nancy has at least 3k + 1
points and Rachel has at least k points. This shows that Nancy’s minimum number of points is
either 3k + 1 or 3k + 2.
The product of all the numbers going via the columns is (+1)2k+1 = +1. Thus the product of the
numbers in the last row is ( 1)k . If k is even, then Nancy also wins the last row so that Nancy can
guarantee at least 3k + 2 points. If k is odd, then Nancy cannot simultaneously win every column
and every odd numbered row, thus Nancy is only guaranteed at least 3k + 1 points. ⇤

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Solutions Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
Combinatorics 2021 Mentor Program

C6. Let n be a positive integer greater than 3. In a hat are placed n beads, numbered from 1 to n.
These are then randomly pulled out of the hat and placed in a line, x1 , x2 , . . . , xn , where xi is the
ith bead pulled out of the hat. From here on it is permitted to do the following operation. Take
any two non-intersecting pairs of consecutive beads in the line and exchange their positions, that is,
change string AwxByzC into AyzBwxC, where A, B, C represent (possibly empty) strings of beads
and wx and yz each represent a pair of consecutive beads.
For which n is it always possible to get a monotone sequence of beads after a finite number of
operations?
Note: Here monotone means that the numbers on the beads are either strictly increasing or strictly
decreasing.

Answer All n ⌘ 2, 3 (mod 4)

Solution
Recall that permutations can be divided into even and odd permutations which mimic modulo 2
addition under permutation composition. Here is a quick refresher on all this.
• For a permutation , an inversion is a pair of elements x < y such that (x) > (y).
• The parity of a permutation is the parity of the number of inversions in the permutation. Note
this is well defined.
• A transposition is a permutation that swaps two elements while leaving all others unchanged.
• A transposition is an odd permutation.
• Combining a transposition with a permutation changes the parity of the permutation.
• Any permutation can be written as a composition of transpositions. Using the above, the parity
of the number of transpositions is invariant and is the same as the parity of the permutation.
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity of a permutation for more details. Now for the proof.
AwxByzC ! AyzBwxC is a composition of two transpositions and so is an even permutation.
If n ⌘ 0, 1 (mod 4) then it is easy to see that (n, n 1, . . . , 1) is an even permutation of (1, 2, . . . , n).
Thus if ⇢ is any odd permutation (e.g. (2, 1, 3, 4, . . . , n)) of (1, 2, . . . , n), it is not possible to transform
⇢ into a monotone sequence with the given operations.
If n ⌘ 2, 3 (mod 4) then it is easy to see that (n, n 1, . . . , 1) is an odd permutation of (1, 2, . . . , n).
Thus any given permutation has same parity as one of these two monotone permutations. It suffices
to show that any even permutation can be transformed to the identity permutation using just the
operation given in the question. This will prove that the answer is “yes” for n ⌘ 2, 3 (mod 4).
Consider any five symbols (a, b, c, d, e) in a row. They can be transformed via the operation as
(a, b, c, d, e) ! (a, d, e, b, c) ! (b, c, e, a, d) ! (e, a, b, c, d) ! (e, c, d, a, b) ! (a, b, d, e, c).
Thus we can do a 3-cycle provided there are at least two elements to the left of it. Similarly we can
do a 3-cycle if there are at least two elements to the right of it. Since n 6 in this case, we can
do any 3-cycle. By using such 3-cycles we put the elements of any even permutation in their correct
order one by one starting from n then n 1 and so on until all the numbers 3, 4, . . . , n are in their
correct positions. Since we had an even permutation to start with, this means that 1 and 2 are also
now in their correct position, as desired. ⇤

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