55 nice Combi problems

Rohan Goyal
November 15, 2021

§1 Comments before starting

This problem set is arbitrarily ordered. The problems are not difficulty wise ar-
ranged. I hope you enjoy the problems :D.

Please do not ask me for sources, I really don’t remember. I just copy pasted a lot of
these from some other docs which didn’t have sources mentioned.

These are 50 problems, which I think are nice but ofc vary extremely in difficulty ranging
from the few of the hardest olympiad combi I’ve seen to some INMO level problems. So,
please see whatever problems seem fun to you and try.

If you do any 10 problems of these 55, that’s already quite good. Don’t worry about
doing all.

§2 Problems
Problem 2.1. In a graph, there is a unique hamiltonian cycle. Prove that there exists
an even degree vertex.

Problem 2.2. We tile a convex polygon with 2021 parallelograms. Prove that we could
have tiled the same convex polygon with 2020 parallelograms.

Problem 2.3. A democratic country of 2n people has a national treasure, and some
inflatable lockable bags each of which has its unique type of key. For each bag, you can
make some keys that open only that bag. However, less than 100n2 keys made in total
across bags. Each key may either be given to a citizen or placed in a bag, and a bag may
either be placed in another bag or placed in the open. The treasure must also placed
in a bag of your choice. Prove that you can distribute and store the keys and bags in
such a way that no group of n people can access the treasure whereas any group of n + 1
people can.

Problem 2.4. Let n be a positive integer. Tasty and Stacy are given a circular necklace
with 3n sapphire beads and 3n turquoise beads, such that no three consecutive beads
have the same color. They play a cooperative game where they alternate turns removing
three consecutive beads, subject to the following conditions:

Tasty must remove three consecutive beads which are turquoise, sapphire, and
turquoise, in that order, on each of his turns.

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Stacy must remove three consecutive beads which are sapphire, turquoise, and
sapphire, in that order, on each of her turns.
They win if all the beads are removed in 2n turns. Prove that if they can win with Tasty
going first, they can also win with Stacy going first.
Problem 2.5. Given positive integer n and r pairwise distinct primes p1 , p2 , · · · , pr .
Initially, there are (n + 1)r numbers written on the blackboard: pi11 pi22 · · · pirr (0 ≤
i1 , i2 , · · · , ir ≤ n).
Alice and Bob play a game by making a move by turns, with Alice going first. In Alice’s
round, she erases two numbers a, b (not necessarily different) and write gcd(a, b). In
Bob’s round, he erases two numbers a, b (not necessarily different) and write lcm(a, b).
The game ends when only one number remains on the blackboard.
Determine the minimal possible M such that Alice could guarantee the remaining number
no greater than M , regardless of Bob’s move.
Problem 2.6. A city is a point on the plane. Suppose there are n ≥ 2 cities. Suppose
that for each city X, there is another city N (X) that is strictly closer to X than all the
other cities. The government builds a road connecting each city X and its N (X); no
other roads have been built. Suppose we know that, starting from any city, we can reach
any other city through a series of road.

We call a city Y suburban if it is N (X) for some city X. Show that there are at least
(n − 2)/4 suburban cities.
Problem 2.7. Let n be a nonnegative integer, and let Tn be the set of all points (x, y, z)
in three dimensional space such that x, y, and z are nonnegative integers and x+y +z √= n.
Find all n such that there exists a set S of equilateral triangles of side length 2 in
three-dimensional space such that all vertices of every triangle in S are in Tn , and every
poi nt of Tn is a vertex of exactly one triangle in S.
Problem 2.8. A set S of translates of an equilateral triangle is given in the plane, such
that any two have nonempty intersection. Prove that there exist three points such that
every triangle in S contains one of these points.
Problem 2.9. Alice has a collection of 2m − 1 different perfect matchings of Km,m .
Prove that Alice can pick one edge from m different matchings (and no edge from the
other m − 1 matchings) so that the picked edges form a perfect matching.

Note: Km,m is the complete bipartite graph which consists of all edges between m vertices
of one colour, and m vertices of another colour.
Problem 2.10. Prove that any arboroscence on n + 1 vertices embeds in any tournament
on 2n vertices
Note: an arboroscence is a directed rooted tree, in which there exists a directed path from the
root to every vertex

Problem 2.11. Let p > 2 be a prime. Let G be a graph with average degree
more than 2p − 2 and maximum degree at most 2p − 1. Assume that G is loopless
(but may contain multiple edges). Prove that G has a p-regular subgraph (not
necessarily induced); that is, we can find a subset of the edges S for which each
vertex is joined to exactly 0 or p edges in S.
Let p be a prime, and let G = (V, E) be a graph on a set of |V | > d(p − 1) vertices.
Then there is a nonempty subset U of vertices of G such that the number of cliques
of d vertices of G that intersect U is 0 modulo p.

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Problem 2.12. There are n monsters of positive weights. You need to perform n − 1
steps; in each step, you merge two monsters. A step is dangerous iff the heavier monster
has a weight of at least 2.021 times the smaller monster. Prove that one optimal way of
minimizing the number of dangerous steps is to always merge the two lightest monsters.

Problem 2.13. For any set A, B of positive integers, we define f (A, B) to be the set of
all c such that the numbers of ordered pairs (a, b) with a ∈ A, b ∈ B such that a + b = c
is odd.
Let S1 , · · · Sn be a sequence of sets satisfying-

|S1 | = 22021
Si+1 = f (Si , S1 ) for all i ≥ 1

Prove that |Sn | ≤ (n + 1)2021 for all naturals n.

Problem 2.14. A 2020k × 2020k square is perfectly tiled with rectangles of dimensions
1 × k (rotation of tiles is allowed). Prove that there is a k × k sub-square which is perfectly
covered by k tiles.

Problem 2.15. At a dinner party there are N hosts and N guests, seated around a
circular table, where N ≥ 4. A pair of two guests will chat with one another if either
there is at most one person seated between them or if there are exactly two people
between them, at least one of whom is a host. Prove that no matter how the 2N people
are seated at the dinner party, at least N pairs of guests will chat with one another.

Problem 2.16. For any finite sets X and Y of positive integers, denote by fX (k) the
k th smallest positive integer not in X, and let

X ∗ Y = X ∪ {fX (y) : y ∈ Y }.

Let A be a set of a > 0 positive integers and let B be a set of b > 0 positive integers.
Prove that if A ∗ B = B ∗ A, then

A ∗ (A ∗ · · · (A ∗ (A ∗ A)) · · · ) = B ∗ (B ∗ · · · (B ∗ (B ∗ B)) · · · ) .
| {z } | {z }
A appears b times B appears a times

Problem 2.17. Consider a tree with n vertices, labeled with 1, . . . , n in a way that
no label is used twice. We change the labeling in the following way - each time we
pick an edge that hasn’t been picked before and swap the labels of its endpoints. After
performing this action n − 1 times, we get another tree with its labeling a permutation
of the first graph’s labeling. Prove that this permutation contains exactly one cycle.

Problem 2.18. Call the improvement of a positive number its replacement by a power
of two, for which the increases, but by less than 2 times. Given 2100 positive numbers
with a sum of 2100 , prove that you can erase some of the numbers, and improve each of
the other numbers once, so that the sum of the resulting numbers is again 2100 .

Problem 2.19. Let n ≥ 1 be an integer and A = {0, 1, · · · n − 1}. Alice and Bob play
the following game: Alice has a set S ⊆ A which she keeps secret to herself. On each
turn, Bob gives her a set T and she changes S to the set of elements of A in exactly one
of S + j and T for some j ∈ A of her choice. Bob wins if Alice’s set becomes empty after
some turn in the game.

Find all n ≥ 1 for which Bob has a winning strategy.

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Note. X + j for any subset X of A is defined as the set of all numbers x + j (mod n)
across x ∈ X.

Problem 2.20. A 3n × 3n grid is tiled with L−trominoes. Prove that a single tile can
be marked in each of the 3n2 trominoes, such that every row and column has an equal
number of marked tiles.

Problem 2.21. Ten million fireflies are glowing in R3 at midnight. Some of the fireflies
are friends, and friendship is always mutual. Every second, one firefly moves to a new
position so that its distance from each one of its friends is the same as it was before
moving. This is the only way that the fireflies ever change their positions. No two fireflies
may every occupy the same point.

Initially, no two fireflies, friends or not, are more than a meter away. Following some
finite number of seconds, all fireflies find themselves at least ten million meters away
from their original positions. Given this information, find the greatest possible number
of friendships between the fireflies.

Problem 2.22. An airline operates flights between any two capital cities in the European
Union. Each flight has a fixed price which is the same in both directions. Furthermore,
the flight prices from any given city are pairwise distinct. Anna and Bella wish to visit
each city exactly once, not necessarily starting from the same city. While Anna always
takes the cheapest flight from her current city to some city she hasn’t visited yet, Bella
always continues her tour with the most expensive flight available. Is it true that Bella’s
tour will surely cost at least as much as Anna’s tour?

Problem 2.23. There is a simple graph which chromatic number is equal to k. All of the
edges of the graph are painted using two colors. Prove that there exist a monochromatic
tree with k vertices.

Problem 2.24. Jerry the mouse traces a non-intersecting polygonal path on a plane,
always facing one of the four cardinal directions, and ends up where it started, facing the
same direction. Prove that the number of times Jerry turned from North to East, and
the number of times Jerry turned from East to North differ by 1.

Problem 2.25. For a given integer n ≥ 2, let a0 , a1 , . . . , an be integers satisfying

0 = a0 < a1 < . . . < an = 2n − 1. Find the smallest possible number of elements in the
set {ai + aj | 0 ≤ i ≤ j ≤ n}.

Problem 2.26. A 2-player game is played on n ≥ 3 points, where no 3 points are

collinear. Each move consists of selecting 2 of the points and drawing a new line segment
connecting them. The first player to draw a line segment that creates an odd cycle loses.
(An odd cycle must have all its vertices among the n points from the start, so the vertices
of the cycle cannot be the intersections of the lines drawn.) Find all n such that the
player to move first wins.

Problem 2.27. Simple graph G has 19998 vertices. For any subgraph Ḡ of G with 9999
vertices, Ḡ has at least 9999 edges. Find the minimum number of edges in G

Problem 2.28. Let n ≥ 3 be a positive integers and p be a prime number such that
p > 6n−1 − 2n + 1. Let S be the set of n positive integers with different residues modulo
p. Show that there exists a positive integer c such that there are exactly two ordered
triples (x, y, z) ∈ S 3 with distinct elements, such that x − y + z − c is divisible by p.

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Problem 2.29. There are k piles of stones with 2020 stones in each pile. Amber can
choose any two non-empty piles of stones, and Barbara can take one stone from one of
the two chosen piles and puts it into the other pile. Amber wins if she can eventually
make an empty pile. What is the least k such that Amber can always win?

Problem 2.30. Some language has only three letters - A, B and C. A sequence of
letters is called a word iff it contains exactly 100 letters such that exactly 40 of them are
consonants and other 60 letters are all A. What is the maximum numbers of words one
can pick such that any two picked words have at least one position where they both have
consonants, but different consonants?

Problem 2.31. Let P be a regular polygon, and let V be its set of vertices. Each point
in V is colored red, white, or blue. A subset of V is patriotic if it contains an equal
number of points of each color, and a side of P is dazzling if its endpoints are of different
colors.
Suppose that V is patriotic and the number of dazzling edges of P is even. Prove that
there exists a line, not passing through any point in V, dividing V into two nonempty
patriotic subsets.

Problem 2.32. P is a convex polyhedron such that every vertex belongs to exactly 3
faces. An ant walked along the edges of P and formed a non-self-intersecting cycle, which
divided the faces of this polyhedron into two sides, such that for every natural number
n, the number of faces with n vertices on the two sides were the same. Show that the
number of times the ant turned left is the same as the number of times the ant turned
right.

Problem 2.33. For a set S of n points on the plane, we let the weight of S denote the
number of non-self-intersecting broken lines with n − 1 segments, whose endpoints are
points in S. What’s the smallest possible weight of a set of size 2021 in which no three
points are collinear?

Problem 2.34. Every pirate in a group has a grudge against at most two other pirates.
An arbiter calls out every pirate’s name once, in an arbitrary order. If the pirate named
at any stage is still alive, he kills everyone he has a grudge against. By the end, 28 pirates
died. Prove that irrespective of the order in which their names would have been called
out, at least 10 pirates would have died.

Problem 2.35. Two integers 1 ≤ k < n are given. The gameof imprisonment is a
cooperative game of n players. The players, consisting of k boys and n − k girls, are
sitting on a circular table initially. Then, an infinite sequence of positive integers x1 , x2 , ...
is given. By considering the sequence, the n players choose two distinct players A and B
among them. The players A and B each receive a handcuff, and the game starts then.
The game proceeds in turns: on the ith turn of the game, the players having the handcuff
passes it to the xi th player from him. (Here, the boys hands in clockwise order, whereas
the girls hands in counterclockwise order.) The game terminates if some player receives
both handcuffs.

For which sequences x1 , x2 , .., regardless of the initial positions of the players, do the
players have a strategy to make the game terminate after a finite number of turns?

Problem 2.36. For two positive integers a and b, Ivica and Marica play the following
game: Given two piles of a and b cookies, on each turn a player takes 2n cookies from
one of the piles, of which he eats n and puts n of them on the other pile. Number n is

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arbitrary in every move. Players take turns alternatively, with Ivica going first. The
player who cannot make a move, loses. Assuming both players play perfectly, determine
all pairs of numbers (a, b) for which Marica has a winning strategy.

Problem 2.37. Fix positive integers n and k ≥ 2. A list of n integers is written in a

row on a blackboard. You can choose a contiguous block of integers, and I will either
add 1 to all of them or subtract 1 from all of them. You can repeat this step as often as
you like, possibly adapting your selections based on what I do. Prove that after a finite
number of steps, you can reach a state where at least n − k + 2 of the numbers on the
blackboard are all simultaneously divisible by k.

Problem 2.38. Let T be a finite set of positive integers greater than 1. A subset S of
T is called good if for every t ∈ T there exists some s ∈ S with gcd(s, t) > 1. Prove that
the number of good subsets of T is odd.

Problem 2.39. Some bishops and knights are placed on an infinite chessboard, where
each square has side length 1 unit. Suppose that the following conditions hold:
For each bishop, there exists a knight on the same diagonal as that bishop (there may be
another piece between the bishop and the knight). √
For each knight, there exists a bishop that is exactly 5 units away from it.
If any piece is removed from the board, then at least one of the above conditions is no
longer satisfied.
If n is the total number of pieces on the board, find all possible values of n.

Problem 2.40. Let a rectangle be tiled with only squares, prove that the ratio of
its sides must be rational.
Call a rectangle honourable if it has integer perimeter. Prove that any rectangle
that can be tiled by honourable rectangles can also tile an honourable rectangle.

Problem 2.41. A graph G is called uwu, if G does not have a perfect matching, but
G ∪ {e} has a perfect matching for any e 6∈ G. Prove that the number of uwu graphs on
2n vertices is P (n + 1) − 1, where P denotes the partition function.

Problem 2.42. Prove that for any natural number m there exists a natural number n
such that any n distinct points on the plane can be partitioned into m non-empty sets
whose convex hulls have a common point.

Problem 2.43. Each girl among 100 girls has 100 balls; there are in total 10000 balls in
100 colors, from each color there are 100 balls. On a move, two girls can exchange a ball
(the first gives the second one of her balls, and vice versa). The operations can be made
in such a way, that in the end, each girl has 100 balls, colored in the 100 distinct colors.
Prove that there is a sequence of operations, in which each ball is exchanged no more
than 1 time, and at the end, each girl has 100 balls, colored in the 100 colors.

Problem 2.44. Let Q(x) be a polynomial with integer coefficients. Prove that there
exists a polynomial P (x) with integer coefficients such that for every integer n ≥ deg Q,
n
X !iP (i)
= Q(n),
i!(n − i)!
i=0

where !i denotes the number of derangements (permutations with no fixed points) of

1, 2, . . . , i.

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Problem 2.45. Prove that, for all but finitely many positive integers v, any graph on v
√
vertices with at least v + 2 v + 2 edges has two distinct simple cycles of equal lengths.

Problem 2.46. Given a set of n points P such that no 3 are collinear, prove that there
exists a subset P 0 ⊂ P of size cn1/3 such that no two segments with endpoints in P 0 have
the same length.

Problem 2.47. Rockefeller and Marx play the following game. There are n > 1 cities,
each with the same number of citizens. At the start of the game every citizen has exactly
one coin (all coins are identical). On his turn, Rockefeller chooses one citizen from every
city, then Marx redistributes their coins between them so that the new distribution is
different from one immediately before. Rockefeller wins if at some moment there will be
at least one citizen in every city with no coin. Prove that Rockefeller can always win, no
matter how Marx plays, if in every city there are
a) 2n citizens;
b) 2n − 1 citizens

Problem 2.48. Consider a graph G with n vertices and at least n2 /10 edges. Suppose
that each edge is colored in one of c colors such that no two incident edges have the same
color. Assume further that no cycles of size 10 have the same set of colors. Prove that
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there is a constant k such that c is at least kn 5 for any n.

Problem 2.49. The Fibonacci numbers F0 , F1 , F2 , ... are defined inductively by F0 =

0, F1 = 1, and Fn+1 = Fn + Fn−1 for n ≥ 1. Given an integer n ≥ 2, determine the
smallest size of a set S of integers such that for every k = 2, 3, ..., n there exist some
x, y ∈ S such that x − y = Fk .

Problem 2.50. Within a group of 2009 people, every two people has exactly one common
friend. Find the least value of the difference between the person with maximum number
of friends and the person with minimum number of friends.

Problem 2.51. Anna and Ben decided to visit Archipelago with 2009 islands. Some
pairs of islands are connected by boats which run both ways. Anna and Ben are playing
during the trip Anna chooses the first island on which they arrive by plane. Then Ben
chooses the next island which they could visit. Thereafter, the two take turns choosing an
island which they have not yet visited. When they arrive at an island which is connected
only to islands they had already visited, whoever’s turn to choose next would be the loser.
Prove that Anna could always win, regardless of the way Ben played and regardless of
the way the islands were connected.

Problem 2.52. Fix a positive integer n. Pick 4n equally spaced points on a circle and
color them alternately blue and red. You use n blue chords to pair the 2n blue points,
and you use n red chords to pair the 2n red points. If some blue chord intersects some
other red chord, then such a pair of chords is called a good pair. Find, with proof, the
minimum number of good pairs under all possible configurations of chord pairings.

Problem 2.53. Let 0 < e < 1 be a real number. An odd number number of red points
are marked on the real line, and for every red point x, points x + e and x − e are coloured
blue. Prove that there is some blue point y, such that there are an odd number of red
points x such that |x − y| < 1.

Problem 2.54. Let n and k be positive integers. Two infinite sequences {si }i≥1 and
{ti }i≥1 are equivalent if, for all positive integers i and j, si = sj if and only if ti = tj . A
sequence {ri }i≥1 has equi-period k if r1 , r2 , . . . and rk+1 , rk+2 , . . . are equivalent.

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Suppose M infinite sequences with equi-period k whose terms are in the set {1, . . . , n}
can be chosen such that no two chosen sequences are equivalent to each other. Determine
the largest possible value of M in terms of n and k.

Problem 2.55. Let k be a fixed integer, and consider graphs G with no cycles of length
2k. Show that there exists a constant c (depending on k) satisfying: every such graph G
has a subgraph G0 with no 4-cycle such that |E(G0 )| ≥ c · |E(G)|.