AIME Counting Problems

1. Twenty five of King Arthur’s knights are seated at their customary round table. Three
of them are chosen - all choices being equally likely - and are sent off to slay a trouble-
some dragon. Let P be the probability that at least two of the three had been sitting
next to each other. If P is written as a fraction in lowest terms, what is the sum of
the numerator and denominator? (1983 AIME 7)

2. The numbers 1337, 1005, and 1231 have something in common. Each is a four-digit
number beginning with 1 that has exactly two identical digits. How many such numbers
are there? (1983 AIME 10)
3. For {1, 2, 3, . . . , n} and each of its non-empty subsets, an alternating sum is defined as
follows. Arrange the numbers in the subset in decreasing order and then, beginning
with the largest, alternately add and subtract successive numbers. For example, the
alternating sum for {1, 2, 3, 6, 9} is 9 − 6 + 3 − 2 + 1 = 5 and for {5} it is simply 5.
Find the sum of all such alternating sums for n = 7. (1983 AIME 13)
4. A gardener plants three maple trees, four oaks, and five birch trees in a row. He plants
them in random order, each arrangement being equally likely. Let m n
in lowest terms
be the probability that no two birch trees are next to one another. Find m + n. (1984
AIME 11)
5. Let A, B, C, and D be the vertices of a regular tetrahedron each of whose edges
measures 1 meter. A bug, starting from vertex A, observes the following rule: at each
vertex, it chooses one of the three edges meeting at that vertex, each edge being equally
likelly to be chosen, and crawls along that edge to the vertex at its opposite end. Let
n
p = 729 be the probability that the bug is at vertex A when it has crawled exactly 7
meters. Find the value of n. (1985 AIME 12)
6. In a tournament each player played exactly one game against each of the other players.
In each game the winner was awarded 1 point, the loser got 0 points, and each of
the two players earned 1/2 point if the game was a tie. After the completion of the
tournament, it was found that exactly half of the points earned by each player were
earned against the ten players with the least number of points. (In particular, each of
the ten lowest scoring players earned half of his/her points against the other nine of
the ten). What was the total number of players in the tournament? (1985 AIME 14)
7. Let the sum of a set of numbers be the sum of its elements. Let S be a set of positive
integers, none greater than 15. Suppose no two disjoint subsets of S have the same

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sum. What is the largest sum a set S with these properties can have? (1986 AIME
12)

8. In a sequence of coin tosses, one can keep a record of instances in which a tail is im-
mediately followed by a head, a head is immediately followed by a head, and etc. We
denote these by TH, HH, and etc. For example, in the sequence TTTHHTHTTTH-
HTTH of 15 coin tosses we observe that there are two HH, three HT, four TH, and five
TT subsequences. How many different sequences of 15 coin tosses will contain exactly
two HH, three HT, four TH, and five TT subsequences? (1986 AIME 12)

9. A given sequence r1 , r2 , . . . , rn of distinct real numbers can be put in ascending order

by means of one of more ”bubble passses”. A bubble pass through a given sequence
consists of comparing the second term with the first term, and exchanging them if
and only if the second term is smaller, then comparing the third term with the second
term and exchanging them if and only if the third term is smaller, and so on in order,
through comparing the last term, rn , with it current predecessor and exchanging them
if and only if the last term is smaller.
The example below shows how the sequence 1, 9, 8, 7, is transformed into the sequence
1, 8, 7, 9 by one bubble pass. The numbers compared at each step are underlined.

1 9 8 7
1 9 8 7
1 8 9 7
1 8 7 9

Suppose that n = 40, and that the terms of the initial sequence r1 , r2 , . . . , r40 are
distinct from one another and are in random order. Let p/q, in lowest terms, be the
probability that the number that begins as r20 will end up, after one bubble pass, in
the 30th place. Find p + q. (1987 AIME 13)

10. A convex polyhedron has for its faces 12 squares, 8 regular hexagons, and 6 regular
octagons. At each vertex of the polyhedron, one square, one hexagon, and one octagon
meet. How many segments joining the vertices of the polyhedron lie in the interior of
the polyhedron rather than along an edge or a face? (1988 AIME 10)

11. In an office at various times during the day, the boss gives the secretary a letter to type,
each time putting the letter on top of the pile in the secretary’s in-box. When there is
time, the secretary takes the top letter off the pile and types is. There are nine letters
to be typed during the day, and the boss delivers them in the order 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.

While leaving for lunch, the secretary tells a colleague that letter 8 has already been
typed, but says nothing else about the morning’s typing. The colleague wonders which
of the nine letters remain to be typed after lunch and in what order they will be
typed. Based upon the above information, how many such after-lunch typings orders

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are possible? (That there are no letters left to be typed is one of the possibilities.)
(1988 AIME 15)

12. Ten points are marked on a circle. How many distinct convex polygons of three or
more sides can be drawn using some (or all) of the ten points as vertices? (1989 AIME
2)

13. When a certain biased coin is flipped five times, the probability of getting heads exactly
once is not equal to 0. and is the same as that of getting heads exactly twice. Let ji ,
in lowest terms, be the probability that the coin comes up heads in exactly 3 out of 5
flips. Find i + j. (1989 AIME 5)

14. Let S be a subset of {1, 2, 3, . . . , 1989} such that no two members of S differ by 4 or
7. What is the largest number of elements S can have? (1989 AIME 13)

15. The increasing sequence 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, . . . consists of all positive integers that are
neither the square nor the cube of a positive integer. Find the 500th term of this
sequence. (1990 AIME 1)

16. In a shooting match, eight clay targets are arranged in two hanging columns of three
targets each and one column of two targets. A marksman is to break all the targets
according to the following rules:
1) The marksman first chooses a column from which a target is to be broken.
2) The marksman must then break the lowest remaining target in the chosen column.
If the rules are followed, in how many different orders can the eight targets be broken?
(1990 AIME 8)

17. A fair coin is to be tossed 10 times. Let i/j, in lowest terms, be the probability that
heads never occur on consecutive tosses. Find i + j. (1990 AIME 9)

18. Each of two boxes contains both black and white marbles, and the total number of
marbles in the two boxes is 25. One marble is taken out of each box randomly. The
probability that both marbles are black is 27
50
, and the probability that both marbles
are white is m
n
, where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. What is m + n?
(2000 AIME I 5)

19. Given eight distinguishable rings, let n be the number of possible five-ring arrangements
on the four fingers (not the thumb) of one hand. The order of rings on each finger is
significant, but it is not required that each finger have a ring. Find the leftmost three
nonzero digits of n. (2000 AIME II 5)

20. The diagram below shows a 4 by 4 rectangular array of points, each of which is 1 unit
away from its nearest neighbors. (Diagram not shown)

Define a growing path to be a sequence of distinct points of the array with the property
that the distance between consecutive points of the sequence is strictly increasing. Let

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m be the maximum possible number of points in a growing path, and let r be the
number of growing paths consisting of exactly m points. Find mr.

21. There are two distinguishable flagpoles, and there are 19 flags, of which 10 are identical
blue flags, and 9 are identical green flags. Let N be the number of distinguishable
arrangements using all of the flags in which each flagopole has at least one flag and no
two green flags on either pole are adjacent. Find the remainder when N is divided by
1000.

22. The Annual Interplanetary Mathematics Examination (AIME) is written by a com-

mitte of five Martians, five Venusians, and five Earthlings. At meetings, committee
members sit at a round table with chairs numbered from 1 to 15 in clockwise order.
Committee rules state that a Martian must occupy chair 1 and an Earthling must
occupty chair 15. Furthermore, no Earthling can sit immediately to the left of a Mar-
tian, no Martian can sit immediately to the left of a Venusian, and no Venusian can sit
immediately to the left of an Earthling. The number of possible seating arrangements
for the committee is N (5!)3 . Find N .

23. A solitaire game is played as follows: Six distinct pairs of matched tiles are placed in
a bag. The player randomly draws tiles one at a time from the bag and retains them,
except that matching tiles are put aside as soon as they appear in the player’s hand.
The game ends if the player ever holds three tiles, no two of which match; otherwise
the drawing continues until the bag is empty. Find the probability that the player wins
the game (by emptying the bag).

24. Let m be the number of five-element subsets that can be chosen from the set of the
first 14 natural numbers so that at least two of the five numbers are consecutive. Find
the remainder when m is divided by 1000.

25. Dave rolls a fair six-sided die until a six appears for the first time. Independently,
Linda rolls a fair six-sided die until a six appears for the first time. Let m and n be
relatively prime positive integers such that m n
is the probability that the number of
times Dave rolls his die is equal to or within one of the number of times Linda rolls
her die. Find m + n.

26. From the set of integers {1, 2, 3, . . . , 2009} choose k pairs {ai , bi } with ai < bi so that
no two pairs have a common element. Suppose that all the sums ai + bi are distinct
and less than or equal to 2009. Find the maximum possible value of k.

27. Define an ordered triple (A, B, C) of sets to be minimally intersecting if |A ∩ B| =

|B ∩ C| = |C ∩ A| = 1 and A ∩ B ∩ C = ∅. For example, ({1, 2}, {2, 3}, {1, 3, 4}) is a
minimally intersecting triple. Let N be the number of minimally intersecting ordered
triples of sets for which each set is a subset of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}. Find the remainder
when N is divided by 1000.
Note: |S| represents the number of elements in the set S.

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28. Let m ≥ 3 be an integer and let S = {3, 4, 5, . . . , m}. Find the smallest value of m
such that for every partition of S into two subsets, at least one of the subsets contains
integers a, b, and c (not necessarily distinct) such that ab = c.
Note: a partition of S is a pair of sets A, B such that A ∩ B = ∅, A ∪ B = S.

29. Let N be the number of ordered pairs of nonempty sets A and B that have the following
properties:

(a) A ∪ B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12},

(b) A ∩ B = ∅,
(c) The number of elements of A is not an element of A,
(d) The number of elements of B is not an element of B.

Find N .

30. Find the number of second-degree polynomials f (x) with integer coefficients and integer
zeros for which f (0) = 2010.

31. Define a T-grid to be a 3 by 3 matrix with satisfies the following two properties:

(a) Exactly five of the entries are 1’s, and the remaining four entries are 0’s.
(b) Among the eight rows, columns, and long diagonals (the long diagonals are
{a13 , a22 , a31 } and {a11 , a22 , a33 }), no more than one of the eight has all three
entries equal.

Find the number of distinct T-grids.

32. The 52 cards in a deck are numbered 1, 2, · · · , 52. Alex, Blair, Corey, and Dylan each
pick a card from the deck randomly and without replacement. The two people with
lower numbered cards form a team, and the two people with higher numbered cards
form another team. Let p(a) be the probability that Alex and Dylan are on the same
team, given that Alex picks one of the cards a and a + 9, and Dylan picks the other of
these two cards. The minimum value of p(a) for which p(a) ≥ 21 can be written as m n
,
where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m + n.

33. The vertices of a regular nonagon (9-sided polygon) are to be labeled with the digits 1
through 9 in such a way that the sum of the numbers on every three consecutive vertices
is a multiple of 3. Two acceptable arrangements are considered to be indistinguishable
if one can be obtained from the other by rotating the nonagon in the plane. Find the
number of distinguishable acceptable arrangements.

34. The probability that a set of three distinct vertices chosen at random from among the
93
vertices of a regular n-gon determine an obtuse triangle is 125 . Find the sum of all
possible values of n.

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35. Six men and some number of women stand in a line in random order. Let p be the
probability that a group of at least four men stand together in the line, given that
every man stands next to at least one other man. Find the least number of women in
the line such that p does not exceed 1 percent.

36. Define an ordered quadruple of integers (a, b, c, d) as ”interesting” if 1 ≤ a < b < c <
d ≤ 10, and a + d > b + c. How many interesting ordered quadruples are there?

37. Ed has five identical green marbles, and a large supply of identical red marbles. He
arranges the green marbles and some of the red ones in a row and finds that the number
of marbles whose right hand neighbor is the same color as themselves is equal to the
number of marbles whose right hand neighbor is the other color. An example of such
an arrangement is GGRRRGGRG. Let m be the maximum number of red marbles
for which such an arrangement is possible, and let N be the number of ways he can
arrange the m + 5 marbles to satisfy the requirement. Find the remainder when N is
divided by 1000.

38. Nine delegates, three each from three different countries, randomly select chairs at a
round table that seats nine people. Let the probability that each delegate sits next to
at least one delegate from another country be mn
, where m and n are relatively prime
positive integers. Find m + n.

39. There are N permutations (a1 , a2 , . . . , a30 ) of 1, 2, . . . , 30 such that for m ∈ {2, 3, 5},
m divides an+m − an for all integers n with 1 ≤ n < n + m ≤ 30. Find the remainder
when N is divided by 1000.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

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52.

53.

54.

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