2018

Chapter Competition
Countdown Round
Problems 1−80

This booklet contains problems to be used

in the Countdown Round.

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02-C18CDR
1. _____________ What is the sum of the integers from 1 to 100, inclusive?

2. _____________ If f(x) = 3x + 4 and g(x) = 2x − 4, what is f(g(−8))?

3. _____________
(points) If two distinct circles and an ellipse are drawn, what is the maximum possible
number of points at which at least two of the three curves intersect?

4. _____________
(minutes) Mikhail can type 80 words in one minute. At this rate, how many minutes will it
take for Mikhail to type 320 words?

5. _____________
(games) A total of 32 softball teams play in a single-elimination tournament, meaning the
losers of each round are eliminated and the winners of each round are matched
up against each other in the next round, until one champion remains. How many
total games are played in the tournament?

6. _____________ Valerie is exactly as much taller than Philip as Philip is taller than Janelle. If
Valerie is 5 feet 6 inches tall, Philip is 4 feet 10 inches tall, and Janelle is 4 feet
x inches tall, what is the value of x?

7. _____________ What is the greatest five-digit multiple of 5 with five distinct odd digits?

8. _____________ What is the mean of the six numbers shown? Express your answer as a decimal
to the nearest hundredth.
632.14 632.12 632.13
632.15 632.16 632.14

9. _____________ Peter counts backwards by 3s starting with 100. What is the average of the first
five numbers that Peter counts?

10. _____________ If (2x) 2 = 16, what is the value of x?

11. _____________
(dollars) A prize of $900 is to be shared in the ratio of 2:1:1 among three awardees. How
many dollars are in the smallest share?

12. _____________
(tickets) As a fund raiser, a booster club sells $10 raffle tickets for a chance to win a
free vacation. If the cost to print any number of raffle tickets is $25, what is the
minimum number of raffle tickets that must be sold to raise $2500?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2017. All rights reserved. 2018 Chapter Countdown Round
13. _____________ What is the product of the number that is 8 more than 16 and the number that is
12 less than 5?

14. _____________ The figure shown is made of ten unit squares. If the figure has area m units2
and perimeter n units, what is the value of m + n?

15. _____________
(home In 2001, Barry led the league with 73 home runs. Alex finished fourth with 52.
runs) Sammy and Luis finished second and third, respectively. Sammy hit seven more
home runs than Luis. If these four players hit a total of 246 home runs in 2001,
how many home runs did Sammy hit that year?

16. _____________ What is the least integer for which 3x − 7 > 24?

17. _____________
(hours) In a single week, how many hours pass between 10 p.m. on Monday and 7 a.m.
on Wednesday?

18. _____________
(eggs) A grocer sells her organic eggs in full containers of 6 or 7 eggs. What is the
greatest number of eggs you cannot buy from her?

19. _____________ Harry tosses 2 fair coins. What is the probability that at least one coin lands
heads up? Express your answer as a common fraction.

20. _____________
(students) A class contains 40 students wearing gloves, scarves, hats or some combination
of these. If 30 students are wearing gloves or scarves but not hats and 28 are
wearing scarves or hats but not gloves, what is the absolute difference between
the number of students wearing gloves and the number of students wearing hats?

21. _____________ What is the value of the sum 12 + 3 + 43 + 6?

22. _____________ What value of n makes the equation 25 × 42 = 8n true?

23. _____________ A 20-sided die with sides labeled with the letters A through T is rolled. What
is the probability the letter facing up is a vowel? Express your answer as a
common fraction.

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2017. All rights reserved. 2018 Chapter Countdown Round
24. _____________
(ft2) The two concentric circles shown have radii of 2 feet and 5 feet. In square feet,
what is the area of the shaded region between the circles? Express
your answer in terms of π.

2
25. _____________ What positive value r satisfies the equation r = ?
1+ r

26. _____________ What is the sum of the coefficients in the polynomial x4 + 4x3 + 6x2 + 4x + 1?

27. _____________
(dollars) Connie, Nate and Eli each want to buy a sundae. But Connie is 4 dollars short,
Nate is 3 dollars short, and Eli is 1 dollar short. Combined, they have exactly
enough money to buy one sundae. How many dollars does one sundae cost?

28. _____________ What is the positive difference between the sum and product of 17 and 29?

29. _____________
(seconds) Water comes out of a hose at a rate of 3 gallons per minute. Using this hose,
how many seconds will it take to fill a bucket with 4 gallons of water?

30. _____________
(units2) What is the area of a triangle with vertices at (1, 8), (9, 2) and (1, 2)?

(dollars)
31. _____________ Samantha bought a blouse and a skirt for $70. The blouse cost $20 more than
the skirt. What was the cost of the blouse, in dollars?

32. _____________
(units) The area of a rectangle is 40 units2. If the length of the rectangle is 12 units,
what is the width, in units? Express your answer as a common fraction.

33. _____________
(degrees) The degree measure of the vertex angle of an isosceles triangle is twice the
measure of each base angle. What is the degree measure of a base angle?

34. _____________ Two standard six-sided dice are tossed. What is the probability that both the
numbers shown are prime? Express your answer as a common fraction.

35. _____________ What is the greatest integer solution of the inequality | 3x − 5 | ≤ 12?

36. _____________ What number lies at the midpoint of the segment on the number line given by
| 2x + 3 | ≤ 5? Express your answer as a common fraction.

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2017. All rights reserved. 2018 Chapter Countdown Round
37. _____________
(unit A 3-cm × 3-cm × 3-cm cube is painted blue on all sides. The cube is then cut
cubes) into unit cubes of edge length 1 cm. How many of the unit cubes have no paint
on any side?

38. _____________
(dollars) Harry made a one-time deposit of $2000 for the use of a couch. When he
returned the couch five years later, he was refunded $1000. How many dollars
per year did he pay for the use of the couch?

39. _____________ If 3x − 7 = 3 + 2y, what is the value of 9x − 6y?

40. _____________ What is the value of (4.2 × 1015) ÷ (8.4 × 1011)? Express your answer as a whole
number.

41. _____________
(miles) Brice rides his bike at a constant speed of 8 mi/h for 15 minutes, then speeds
up and rides at a constant speed of 10 mi/h for 30 minutes. During these
45 minutes, how many miles did he travel?

42. _____________
(chickens) John has a barnyard containing only goats and chickens. The chickens each have
1 head and 2 legs. The goats each have 1 head and 4 legs. If there are 11 heads
and 30 legs in the barnyard, how many chickens are in the barnyard?

43. _____________
(buses) A school bus can transport as many as 50 students. What is the minimum
number of school buses needed to transport 425 students on a field trip?

44. _____________ A math class has 13 girls and 7 boys. If one girl is added to the class, what
fraction of the class is now girls? Express your answer as a common fraction.

45. _____________ What is the sum of the greatest common factor and least common multiple of
the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}?

46. _____________ The product of three consecutive odd integers is 315. What is the least of the
integers?

47. _____________ If x + 3y = 1, 2x + 5z = 11 and x + y − z = −4, what is the value of x + y + z?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2017. All rights reserved. 2018 Chapter Countdown Round
48. _____________
(blue In a bag with 40 marbles, one-fourth are blue. How many blue marbles must be
marbles) added to this bag so that half the marbles in the bag are blue?

49. _____________
(degrees) The degree measures of a pair of complementary angles are in the ratio 1:5.
What is the degree measure of the larger angle?

50. _____________
(dollars) Joni’s stock increased by 20% in the last year. It is now worth $5 more than a
year ago. What was the stock’s value a year ago, in dollars?

51. _____________
(words) Alex and Thomas take part in a rap battle. Alex raps for 90 seconds at an
average word rate of 140 words per minute. Thomas has 75 seconds to respond.
How many words does Thomas need to average per minute in his response to
match Alex’s word count?

52. _____________ If a & b = a2 + b2, what is the units digit of (((1 & 2) & 3) & 4) & 5?

53. _____________
(in3) A cylinder is filled with water to a depth of 6 inches. More water is added,
increasing the depth of the water to 7.5 inches. If the original volume of water
was 36 in3, what is the volume, in cubic inches, after more water is added?

54. _____________
(degrees) What is the degree measure of an exterior angle of a regular nine-sided polygon?

55. _____________
(servings) One serving of hot chocolate requires 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 1 tablespoon
1
of sugar and 1 cup of milk. Milton has 2 cups of cocoa, cup of sugar and
2
1 gallon of milk. What is the greatest number of servings of hot chocolate
Milton can make, given that 16 tablespoons = 1 cup and 16 cups = 1 gallon?

56. _____________ A rectangle with non-congruent adjacent sides and a square share a side of
length 6. The perimeter of the rectangle is 40. What is the ratio of the area of the
square to the area of the rectangle. Express your answer as a common fraction.

57. _____________ Eva’s average score for seven algebra quizzes is 90, with the highest possible
score on any quiz being 100. Eva scored 92 on each of five quizzes. Based on
this, what is the lowest score she could have earned on any one of her quizzes?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2017. All rights reserved. 2018 Chapter Countdown Round
58. _____________ The product of 3 consecutive positive integers is divisible by 6!. What is the
least possible average of the 3 numbers?

59. _____________ If {a, b, c, d, e} is an increasing arithmetic sequence of five prime numbers,

what is the least possible value of | a − b |?

60. _____________
(percent) Of the 80% of the students in a geography class who earned a passing grade,
20% earned an A. What percent of the students in the entire class earned an A?

61. _____________ The circumference of a circle with area π2 can be expressed as 2π b. What is the
value of b? Express your answer as a common fraction.

62. _____________ Dan rolls four standard six-sided dice. What is the probability that the product of
the four numbers rolled is prime? Express your answer as a common fraction.

63. _____________
(percent) Clara is in a rush, so she only gets sunscreen on 70% of her body and bug spray
on 80%. What is the least possible percent of Clara’s body that is protected by
both? Express your answer as a whole number.

t
(hours)
64. _____________ The number of bacteria A present after t hours is given by A(t) = 45.5 × 8 12 .
How many hours does it take for the number of bacteria present to double?

65. _____________
(prime How many two-digit prime numbers are also prime numbers when the digits of
numbers) the number are reversed?

66. _____________
(cm) An equilateral triangle and a regular octagon share a side. If the triangle has a
perimeter of 24 cm, what is the perimeter of the octagon, in centimeters?

5
67. _____________ What number is of the way from −57 to 27?
6

68. _____________ A standard 52-card deck contains four aces. If two cards are drawn randomly
without replacement, what is the probability that they are both aces? Express
your answer as a common fraction.

69. _____________
(m/s) Jenny takes 90 steps per minute. If each step is 80 cm, what is Jenny’s speed in
meters per second? Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.

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70. _____________ What is the sum of the 11th and the 44th digits to the right of the decimal point
1
in the decimal representation of ?
7

71. _____________
(shots) In a basketball game, Jeff scored a total of 36 points. Of the shots he made, 20%
were worth three points each, 40% were worth two points each and 40% were
worth one point each. How many shots worth one point did Jeff make?

(sides)
72. _____________ The sum of the interior angle measures of a convex polygon is 900 degrees.
How many sides does the polygon have?

(zeros)
73. _____________ How many trailing zeros are there in the decimal representation of 25!?

74. _____________ When Shirley goes bowling, the probability that she gets at least one strike
during any given game is 1 , and distinct games are independent from one
5
another. If Shirley plays three games, what is the probability that she gets at
least one strike? Express your answer as a common fraction.

75. _____________ What is the value of 4C0 + 4C1 − 4C2 + 4C3 + 4C4?

76. _____________ Marcus randomly selects a positive composite number less than 100 that has an
odd number of positive factors. What is the probability that his number is also
less than 50? Express your answer as a common fraction.

77. _____________
(sides) A convex polygon has 35 diagonals. How many sides does it have?

78. _____________ If two distinct letters are randomly chosen from the English alphabet of 26
letters, what is the probability that both are in the set {A, E, I, O, U}? Express
your answer as a common fraction.

79. _____________
(dollars) A $270,000 prize is to be divided in the ratio of 5:3:1. What is the largest portion
in dollars?

80. _____________ What is the positive square root of 4 × 36?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2017. All rights reserved. 2018 Chapter Countdown Round