2021 Computational and Algorithmic Thinking — Junior Questions

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2021 (Junior) 1

Part A: Questions 1–6

Each question should be answered by a single choice from A to E.
Questions are worth 3 points each.

1. Not Enough Chairs

Ten people are playing a game of musical chairs, and there are only nine chairs. In the
diagram below, the ten people are labelled 0 through 9, and the chairs are indicated by
a .
The music has stopped, and the participants now race to sit in a chair! They proceed
clockwise and sit in the first empty chair they encounter, and then stay in that chair,
which means no one else can sit in it.

4
3
5
6
2

7 Clockwise

0
8 9

Which person misses out on a chair?

(A) 0 or 1 (B) 2 or 3 (C) 4 or 5

(D) 6 or 7 (E) 8 or 9

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2. Rook Moves
A rook moves about on a grid. In any one move, the rook may travel any number of
squares either horizontally or vertically. However, the shaded squares in the grid may
not be passed over.
In the grid below, the rook begins at the Start square. What is the smallest number of
moves the rook must make to reach any square on the grid?

Start

(A) 4 (B) 5 (C) 6 (D) 7 (E) 8

3. Nesting Sites
Birdwatchers have discovered four nesting sites on the shores of
a large lake.
The distances between the sites are as follows:

Kestrel Goshawk Osprey Falcon

Kestrel 1 km 3 km 3 km
Goshawk 1 km 4 km 2 km
Osprey 3 km 4 km 4 km
Falcon 3 km 2 km 4 km
Note that there are always two different ways of travelling from one site to another,
corresponding to the two different directions around the lake. The table lists the shorter
distance in each case.
What is the total distance around the lake?

(A) 10 km (B) 11 km (C) 12 km (D) 13 km (E) 14 km

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4. Inge’s Instructions
Inge follows these instructions precisely.

pen down Pen onto paper, facing right

repeat 4 times

move 2 steps Draw 2 steps in facing direction

repeat 3 times

turn 90 degrees Turn left 90°

move 1 step Draw 1 step in facing direction

Which pattern does Inge trace out?

(A) (B) (C)

(D) (E)

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5. Beads
At a market, a stall holder sells bags of beads. Each bag contains a random mixture of
blue and green beads. You and a friend decide to buy several bags, which you share in
the following way:
• For half of the bags, you will get the blue beads and your friend will get the green
beads.
• For the other half, he will get the blue beads and you will get the green beads.
For instance, if there were four bags with beads as shown in the table,
Bag 1 2 3 4
Blue 3 4 1 2
Green 5 6 4 3
then the most beads you could get is 15, by choosing:
either the 5 blue beads in the bags 1 and 4, and the 10 green beads in bags 2 and 3,
or the 6 blue beads in the bags 2 and 4, and the 9 green beads in bags 1 and 3.
What is the most beads you could get if the number of beads in each of the 10 bags are
as follows?
Bag 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Blue 5 2 3 3 5 4 3 6 4 5
Green 3 4 2 1 4 3 1 4 5 4

(A) 36 (B) 37 (C) 38 (D) 39 (E) 40

6. Virtual Rogaining
In rogaining, competitors have to visit various checkpoints and then return to base within
a given time limit, gaining points for the value of checkpoints they visit.
In this virtual rogaining game, you can move horizontally or vertically from square to
square but must avoid the shaded squares. You have to move from the start, visit some
of the numbered checkpoint squares and finally return to the start square, all within a
maximum of 40 moves.

Start 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Note that there are 17 squares along the top, so visiting the rightmost checkpoint and
returning would take 40 moves.
If the points you earn for each numbered square you visit are given by the number in
the square, what is the greatest number of points you can earn?

(A) 8 (B) 13 (C) 14 (D) 15 (E) 18

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Part B: Questions 7–9

Each question has three parts, each of which is worth 2 points.
Each part should be answered by a number in the range 0–999.

7. Rescue Robot
The exploration party is trapped and needs a spare battery for its escape pod. A rescue
robot is being sent from X with a spare battery. The robot can only travel along the
dotted paths below. That is, left to right on the horizontal paths, and downward on the
vertical paths.
However it must pass through areas of hazardous radiation. The intensity of the radia-
tion is shown by the numbers.

4 3 1 4 3 1
X

5 1 4 5 1 4
A

3 4 5 3 4 2
B

1 5 2 3 2 2
C

You want to minimise the robot’s exposure to radiation. For each of the endpoints below,
what it the smallest total radiation the robot is exposed to if it starts at X?

A. A

B. B

C. C

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8. Number Chute
A number chute has a top rack with several numbered balls.
The top rack can tilt to the left or the right. At each tilt one ball will roll down a chute
to the left end of a bottom rack.

The balls in the top rack form a number. After rolling down to the bottom rack, the balls
will form a new number.
You want to make the number in the bottom rack as large as possible.
For each of the following top racks, what are the digits on the last three balls if the
number in the bottom rack is as large as possible?
(If your largest number was 5 4 3 2 1, your answer would be 3 2 1.)

A. 6 2 8 4 3

B. 7 1 5 9 4 6

C. 7 3 4 9 5 3 6

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9. Adamantite Mine
Crystals of Adamantite are located underground in vertical seams. Each potential mine
site is drawn as a column of boxes. Every box contains a known number of crystals.
Adam wants as many crystals as possible but may only mine a limited number of boxes.
A box can only be mined if all other boxes in the column above it are mined first.
For example, from these 3 seams Adam can mine 3 boxes.

3 2 4
1 2 4
1 5 2

The best Adam could do is to mine the top box in the first column and the top two boxes
in the third column for a total of 3 + 4 + 4 = 11 crystals.
The worst Adam could do would be to mine all of the squares in the first column for a
total of 3 + 1 + 1 = 5 crystals.

Best: 3 2 4 Worst: 3 2 4
1 2 4 1 2 4
1 5 2 1 5 2

For each of these scenarios, what is the largest number of crystals that Adam could find?

A. Adam can mine 2 boxes. B. Adam can mine 3 boxes.

3 1 5 1 3 4 3 4 5 2 1 1

1 2 1 6 5 1 1 1 2 3 2 4

8 6 5 4 7 8

C. Adam can mine 4 boxes.

1 2 2 3 1 3

2 4 2 2 4 4

5 1 2 4 3 1

3 3 6 1 3 2

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