2020 IMOC Problems

August 10–16, 2020

x4 + y 4 + z 4 ≥ f (xy) + f (yz) + f (zx) ≥ xyz(x + y + z)

holds for all x, y, z ∈ R .

A2 (usjl). Find all f : R+ → R+ such that

f (f (x) + y)f (x) = f (xy + 1) ∀x, y ∈ R+ .

A3 (ltf0501). Assume that a, b, c are positive reals such that a + b + c = 3. Prove that
1 1 1
+ 2 + 2 ≤ 3.
8a2 − 18a + 11 8b − 18b + 11 8c − 18c + 11

A4 (usjl). One day, before his work time at Jane Street, Sunny decided to have some fun.
He saw that there are some real numbers a−1 , . . . , a−k on a blackboard, so he decided to do the
following process just for fun: if there are real numbers a−k , . . . , an−1 on the blackboard, then
he computes the polynomial

Pn (t) = (1 − a−k t) · · · (1 − an−1 t).

He then writes a real number an , where

iPn (i) − iPn (−i)

If an is undefined (that is, Pn (i) + Pn (−i) = 0), then he would stop and go to work. Show
that if Sunny writes some real number on the blackboard twice (or equivalently, there exist
m > n ≥ 0 such that am = an ), then the process never stops. Moreover, show that in this case,
all the numbers Sunny writes afterwards will already be written before.

A5 (usjl). Let 0 < c < 1 be a given real number. Determine the least constant K such
that the following holds: For all positive real M that is greater than 1, there exists a strictly
increasing sequence x0 , x1 , . . . , xn (of arbitrary length) such that x0 = 1, xn ≥ M and

∑
n−1
(xi+1 − xi )c
≤ K.
i=0
xc+1
i

A6 (ltf0501). Let P (x) be a polynomial with real coefficients such that deg P ≥ 3 is an odd
integer. Let f : R → Z be a function such that

f (P (x)) = P (f (x)), ∀x ∈ R.

(a). Prove that the range of f is finite.

(b). Show that for any positive integer n, there exist P, f that satisfies the above condition and
also that the range of f has cardinality n.

Author: 3
Combinatorics
C1 (ltf0501). Find all positive integer N such that for any infinite triangular grid with exactly
N black unit equilateral triangles, there exists an equilateral triangle S whose sides align with
grid lines such that there is exactly one black unit equilateral triangle outside of S.

C2 (ltf0501). There are N ≥ 3 letters arranged in a circle, and each letter is one of L, T and
F . For a letter, we can do a following operation: if its neighbors are the same, then change it
to the same letter too; otherwise, change it so that it is different from both its neighbors. Show
that for any initial state, one can perform finitely many operations to achieve a stable state.
Here, a stable state means that any operation does not change any of the N letters.

C3. Sunny wants to send some secret message to usjl. The secret message is a three digit
number, where each digit is one digit from 0 to 9 (so 000 is also possibly the secret message).
However, when Sunny sends the message to usjl, at most one digit might be altered. Therefore,
Sunny decides to send usjl a longer message so that usjl can decipher the message to get the
original secret message Sunny wants to send. Sunny and usjl can communicate the strategy
beforehand. Show that sending a 4-digit message does not suffice. Also show that sending a
6-digit message suffices. If it is deduced that sending a c-digit message suffices for some c > 6,
then partial credits may be awarded.

C4 (ltf0501). Show that for any positive integer n ≥ 3 and some subset of {1, 2, . . . , n} with
size more than n/2 + 1, there exist three distinct elements a, b, c in the subset such that

(ab)2 + (bc)2 + (ca)2

is a perfect square.

C5 (usjl). Alice and Bob are playing a game on a graph with n ≥ 3 vertices. At each moment,
Alice needs to choose two vertices so that the graph is connected even if one of them (along
with the edges incident to it) is removed. Each turn, Bob removes one edge in the graph, and
upon the removal, Alice needs to re-select the two vertices if necessary. However, Bob has to
guarantee that after each removal, any two vertices in the graph are still connected via at most
k intermediate vertices. Here 0 ≤ k ≤ n − 2 is some given integer.
Suppose that Bob always knows which two vertices Alice chooses, and that initially the
graph is a complete graph. Alice’s objective is to change her choice of the two vertices as few
times as possible, and Bob’s objective is to make Alive re-select as many times as possible. If
both Alice and Bob are sufficiently smart, how many times will Alice change her choice of the
two vertices?

C6. There are n boys and n girls in a club. Some of them are friends with each other. The
boys want to get into a relationship, so some subset of them wants to ask some girls out for
a trip. Because the boys are shy, for a nonempty set B of boys, they want to make sure that
each of the girl they ask out is friend with one of the boys in B. If the number of girls they
are able to ask out is smaller than the number of the boys in B, then the nonempty set B of
those boys is called a group of complete losers.
Show that for any 0 ≤ k < 2n , there exists an arrangement of the friendships among those
2n people so that there are exactly k groups of complete losers.

Author: 4
Geometry
G1 (ltf0501). Let O be the circumcenter of triangle ABC. Choose a point X on the circum-
circle ⊙(ABC) such that OX∥BC. Assume that ⊙(AXO) intersects AB, AC at E, F , respec-
tively, and OE, OF intersect BC at P, Q, respectively. Furthermore, assume that ⊙(XP Q)
and ⊙(ABC) intersect at R. Prove that OR and ⊙(XP Q) are tangent to each other.

G2 (Li4). Let O be the circumcenter of triangle ABC. Define OA0 = OB0 = OC0 = O.
Recursively, define OAn to be the circumcenter of △BOA(n−1) C. Similarly define OBn , OCn .
Find all n ≥ 1 so that for any triangle ABC such that OAn , OBn , OCn all exist, it is true that
AOAn , BOBn , COCn are concurrent.

G3 (houkai). Triangle ABC has incenter I and circumcenter O. AI, BI, CI intersect the
circumcircle of ABC again at MA , MB , MC , respectively. Show that the Euler line of BIC
passes through the circumcenter of OMB MC .

G4 (ltf0501). Let I be the incenter of triangle ABC. Let BI and AC intersect at E, and
CI and AB intersect at F . Suppose that R is another intersection of ⊙(ABC) and ⊙(AEF ).
Let M be the midpoint of BC, and P, Q are the intersections of AI, M I and EF , respectively.
Show that A, P, Q, R are concyclic.

G5 (ltf0501). Let O, H be the circumcentor and the orthocenter of a scalene triangle ABC.
Let P be the reflection of A w.r.t. OH, and Q is a point on ⊙(ABC) such that AQ, OH, BC
are concurrent. Let A′ be a points such that ABA′ C is a parallelogram. Show that A′ , H, P, Q
are concylic.

G6 (Li4). Let ABC be a triangle, and Ma , Mb , Mc be the midpoints of BC, CA, AB,
respectively. Extend Mb Mc so that it intersects ⊙(ABC) at P . Let AP and BC intersect at
Q. Prove that the tangent at A to ⊙(ABC) and the tangent at P to ⊙(P QMa ) intersect on
line BC.

Author: 5
Number Theory
N1 (usjl). Find all nonnegative integers a, b, c such that

a2 + b2 + c2 − ab − bc − ca = a + b + c.

N2 (usjl). Find all positive integers N such that the following holds: There exist pairwise
coprime positive integers a, b, c with
1 1 1 N
+ + = .
a b c a+b+c

N3 (ltf0501). For any positive integer n, define rad(n) to be the product of all prime divisors
of n (without multiplicities), and in particular rad(1) = 1. Consider an infinite sequence of
positive integers {an }∞
n=1 satisfying that

an+1 = an + rad(an ), ∀n ∈ N.

Show that there exist positive integers t, s such that at is the product of the s smallest primes.

N4 (ltf0501). Let a, b be two positive integers such that for all positive integer n > 20202020 ,
there exists a positive integer m coprime to n with

an + bn | am + bm

Show that a = b.

N5 (usjl). Find all f : N → N such that for all a, b, c ∈ N,

f (a) + f (b) + f (c) − ab − bc − ca | af (a) + bf (b) + cf (c) − 3abc.

N6 (usjl). Let a, b be positive integers. If a, b satisfy that

a+1 b+1
+
b a
is also a positive integer, show that
a+b
gcd(a, b)2
is a Fibonacci number.

Author: 6