Olympiad stuff you should know (and some

stuff that could be nice to know)

By Markus & Joe

Contents
1 Algebra 1
1.1 Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Sequences, sums and products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Functional equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Inequalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.5 Polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Discrete mathematics 4
2.1 Combinatorics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Graph theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Other that doesn’t fit into any category? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Geometry 5
3.1 Standard normal geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 Some Slightly Less Standard Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Configurations which often come up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4 Bish Bosh Bashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.5 Special Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6 Weird Geometry Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6.1 Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6.2 Projective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6.3 Complete Quadrilaterals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.7 Random High-Tech Theorems and Tricks that are Good to Know . . . . . . 8

4 Number Theory 8
4.1 Divisibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Modular arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3 Diophantine equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.4 Abstract algebra stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.5 Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1 Algebra
1.1 Identities
• Binomial theorem and multinomial theorem
 • Factorization of an − bn and an + bn

• Brahmagupta’s identity

• Euler’s four-square identity

• x3 + y 3 + z 3 − 3xyz = (x + y + z)(x2 + y 2 + z 2 − xy − yz − zx)

1.2 Sequences, sums and products

• Telescoping series

• Difference equations

• Arithmetic progression/sum, geometric progression/sum, geometric series

• Fibonacci sequence

1.3 Functional equations

• Basic definitions: domain, codomain, injective, surjective, bijective, involution, addi-
tive, linear, cyclic, periodic.

• Cauchy’s functional equation

• Jensen’s functional equation

• Monotonocity and continuity

• Rewriting to recurrence relation

• Polynomial functional equations

– Expanding to C and using fundamental theorem of algebra1

– Polynomials are continuous

1.4 Inequalities
• Triangle inequality and x2 ≥ 0

• Jensen’s inequality

• QM-AM-GM-HM

• Power Means – generalization of AM-GM

• Muirhead’s inequality
1
great example where this is the key part: find all polynomials p(x) such that p(x2 ) = p(x)p(x + 1).

Page 2
 • Hölder’s inequality
• Cauchy-Schwarz, Titus Lemma
• Rearrangement inequality and Chebyshev’s inequality
• Karamata’s inequality
• Schur’s inequality
• Lagrange multipliers (xD)
• Substitutions like Ravi substitution.

1.5 Polynomials
• The fundamental theorem of algebra
• Polynomial division algorithm
• Vietas formulas
• Remainder factor theorem and Rational root theorem
• Roots of unity
• Lagrange interpolation
• Irreducibility
– Gauss’ lemma
– Eisensteins (expanded) irreducibility criterion
– Cohn’s irreducibility criterion
– Perron’s irreducibility criterion
• Algebraic numbers and the minimal polynomial
• Calculus
– 2 (x − a)k | P (x) =⇒ (x − a)k−1 | P 0 (x)
– Intermediate value theorem
– Rolle’s theorem
– Taylor series
• Symmetric polynomials
• Rouché’s theorem
• Chebyshev polynomials
2
A nice use of this theorem is to show that the Taylor polynomial of ex around x = 0 has only simple
zeros (in the complex plane)

Page 3
2 Discrete mathematics
2.1 Combinatorics
• Sets

– Basic definitions: elements, subsets, union, intersection, difference, complement,

cartesian product, function, image, pre-image, injective, surjective, bijective, com-
position, cardinality.

• Permutations and combinations

• Bijections

• Double counting

• Pascal’s triangle and binomial coefficients

– Symmetry of Pascal’s triangle

– Row-, column- and diagonal-row sums
– Pascal’s identity
– Hockey-stick identity
– Vandermonde’s identity

• Recursion

• Stars and bars

• Pidegeonhole principle

• PIE (Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion)

• Some abstract algebra stuff

– Permutation groups
– Group actions, especially Burnside’s formula/lemma

• Hall’s marriage theorem

• Dilworth’s theorem

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2.2 Graph theory
• Basic definitions: graph, vertice, edge, face, adjacent, incident, degree, path, cy-
cle, length of path and cycle, walk, connect/disconnected, tree, forest, Hamiltoninan
path/cycle, Eulerian circuit, complete, planar, bipartite, k-partite

• Handshake lemma

• Eulerian graphs, planar graphs, the complete graph Kn

• Euler’s formula on planar graphs

• Kuratowski’s theorem

• Dirac’s theorem

• Ore’s theorem

• Cayley’s theorem

• Turan’s lemma

• Four colour theorem

• Zarankiewicz’s Lemma

• Ramsey theory

2.3 Other that doesn’t fit into any category?

• Bayes’ theorem

• Invariants

• Monovariants

• Generating functions

• Game theory

3 Geometry
3.1 Standard normal geometry
• Similar Triangles

• Cyclic Quads

• Circumcentre

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 • Orthocentre and its Configurations
• Incentre
• Centroid
• Tangents
• Incircles and Excircles
• Incentre/Excentre Lemma
• Power of a Point
• Radical Axis

3.2 Some Slightly Less Standard Geometry

• Homotheties
• Nine-Point Circle
• Basic Trig
• Ceva
• Menelaus

3.3 Configurations which often come up

• Incircle/Excircle Configurations
• Simson Lines
• Midpoints of Altitudes
• Isogonal/Isotomic Conjugates
• Symmedians
• Curvilinear and Mixtilinear Incircles

3.4 Bish Bosh Bashing

• Trig bashing/length chasing
• Cartesians
• Complex Bash
• Areal/Barycentric Bash

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3.5 Special Points
• HM Point

• Isogonal Conjugate of above

• Fermat Point

• Isodynamic Point

• Bevan Point

3.6 Weird Geometry Stuff

3.6.1 Inversion

– Definition of Inversion
– Angle Conservation in Inversion
– Overlays
– Orthogonal Circles
– Inversion Distance Formula (never used this but i guess it is in egmo lol)

3.6.2 Projective

– Cross-Ratio
– Harmonic Bundles and Quadrilaterals
– Apollonian Circles
– Poles/Polars and Bruhcard’s Theorem
– Pascal’s Theorem
– Brianchon’s Theorem
– Purely Projective problems
– Projective Transformations

3.6.3 Complete Quadrilaterals

– sorry i haven’t covered this so literally just copying it from egmo contents
– Spiral Similarity
– Miquel’s Theorem and Miquel Points
– Gauss-Bodenmiller Theorem
– Miquel Points of Cyclic Quadrilaterals

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3.7 Random High-Tech Theorems and Tricks that are Good to
Know
• Napoleon’s theorem

• Cayley-Bacharach

• Sawayama-Thebault

• Circle Tangency through Homotehty Trick (see ISL 2018 G5 or IMO 2011/6)

• Moving Points

4 Number Theory
4.1 Divisibility
• Euclid’s algorithm, division algorithm and gcd

• Bezout’s identity

• Divisibility relations like Euclid’s lemma

• Fundamental theorem of arithmetic

4.2 Modular arithmetic

• Basic congruence rules

• Linear congruences and Chinese remainder theorem

• Euler’s theorem and Fermat’s little theorem

• Wilson’s theorem

• Order of an element

• Primitive roots

• Quadratic congruences

– Quadratic residues
– Legendre symbol
– x2 ≡ −1 (mod p) ⇐⇒ p ≡ 1 (mod 4)
– Euler’s criterion
– Law of quadratic reciprocity

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 • Lucas’ theorem

• Cyclotomic polynomials

• Lagrange’s theorem for polynomials

4.3 Diophantine equations

• Linear diophantine equations

• Finding contradiction modulo n

• p-adic valuation

– Basic theorems and definition

– Legendre’s formula
– Lifting the exponent lemma

• Pell’s equation

• Hensel’s lemma

• Pythagoras’ theorem and Fermat’s Last Theorem

4.4 Abstract algebra stuff

• Basic definitions: rings, integral domains, fields, ideals and principal ideal domains
(PID), Euclidean domains (ED), unique factorization domains (UFD)

• Eisenstein’s criterion and Gauss’ lemma

• Gaussian integers Z[i]

√ √
• Field extensions of Q like Q( d) and the ring of integers Z[ω] of Q( d).

4.5 Other
• Infinite descent

• Bertrand’s postulate

• Zsigmondy’s theorem

• Vieta root jumping

• Chicken McNugget theorem

• Pidgeonhole principle

Page 9
• Sum of divisor function and number of divisors function

• Fibonacci Numbers, Fermat numbers, Mersenne primes and Euler-Euclid theorem (bi-
jection between perfect numbers and Mersenne primes)

Page 10