Tuesday 24 March 2015

Intermediate
Years 9 & 10
(Australian school years)

Name:

INSTRUCTIONS
• Do not open the CAT paper until told to do so.
• Maintain silence at all times.
• Do not bring mobile phones into the room.
• You may use calculators and printed language dictionaries.
• You may NOT borrow equipment without a supervisor’s permission.
• There are 15 questions. Questions 1–6 are multiple-choice with five possible answers given.
Questions 7–15 require a three-digit answer. Attempt all questions. Penalties do not apply.
• You are allowed working time of one hour (60 minutes). There is no extra reading time.
• This is a competition not a test; do not expect to answer all questions.
• Diagrams are NOT drawn to scale. They are intended only as aids.
• The questions have been thoroughly checked. Each question stands as written. No further
explanation of questions can be provided.
• You must not leave your seat. If you have any other questions or problems, please raise your
hand and wait for a supervisor.
• If you wish to leave the room a supervisor must accompany you.
• Record all your answers on the answer sheet provided.
• Use B or 2B lead pencils only. Ball point and ink pen markings may not activate the optical scanner.
• Do not make any other marks on the answer sheet as these may make the sheet unreadable.
• If you make an error, use a plastic eraser to completely remove all lead marks and smudges.
• Check the number of the answer you are filling in is the same as the number of the question
you are answering. This is particularly important if you decide to leave a question blank.
• To ensure the integrity of the CAT and to identify outstanding students, the AMT reserves
the right to re-examine students before deciding whether to grant official status to their score.
© 2015 AMT Publishing amtt limited acn 083 950 341
Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2015 (Intermediate) 1

Part A: Questions 1–6

Each question should be answered by a single choice from A to E.
Questions are worth 3 points each.

1. Four-digit Display
A four-digit display can be altered as follows:

• one digit can be increased by 1, with 9 going to 0, at a cost of $2

• one digit can be decreased by 1, with 0 going to 9, at a cost of $1.
For example, it would cost $1 + $2 = $3 to change 8800 to 8710.

Four-digit Display
8 8 0 0
+ + + +
− − − −

What is the smallest cost to change 8800 to 1234?

(A) $24 (B) $25 (C) $26 (D) $27 (E) $28

2. Camels
You are going on a camel-buying journey, visiting several studs.
In order to increase the camels’ genetic diversity, the Camel Breeders’ Guild requires
that at each camel stud they visit, buyers have to surrender half of their camels (rounded
down) before they are allowed to buy from the stud.
If you start with two camels, and the number of camels you can buy at each stud is
8 6 4 3 9 2 5 8 6
what is the most camels you can end up with if you visit or bypass the studs in that
order? (Note that you do not have to visit each stud.)

(A) 14 (B) 15 (C) 16 (D) 17 (E) 18

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2015 (Intermediate) 2

3. Disco Lights
A DJ has a circle of lights that flash either blue or white. Each light is thus between
exactly two other lights. He wants to write a program to give a dashing sequence,
changing every second, and tries the following rule:

At each change, a light turns (or remains) blue if it is between a white and a blue
light, and turns (or remains) white if it is between two white or two blue lights.

However, he has a fault in his electronics and if there is just one white on, his lights will
short-circuit.
If his starting pattern is

W B

W B

B B

how many seconds will it take until just one light is white?

(A) 2 (A) 2(B) 3 (C)

(B) 36 (D) 7 (E)6 It never happens
(C)
(D) 7 (E) It never happens

4. No more than 10
You are given a list of numbers and have to split it into one or more new lists according
to the following rules:

1. One by one, take a number from the left end of the input list and put it at the right
end of one of the new lists, or start a new list.

2. In the new lists, no two consecutive numbers can have a sum of more than 10.

3. Make as few lists as possible.

For example, the list 5 6 5 3 could be split into two lists 5 5 and 6 3.
What is the smallest number of lists that 5 6 5 3 6 5 4 5 2 8 5 could be split
into using these rules?

(A) 2 (B) 3 (C) 4 (D) 5 (E) 6

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2015 (Intermediate) 3

5. Grid Swaps
A grid can be transformed by swapping rows or columns. For example,

1 2 3 swap 7 8 9 swap 8 7 9
rows columns
4 5 6 4 5 6 5 4 6
1&3 1&2
7 8 9 → 1 2 3 → 2 1 3

The grid
2 2 1 1
1 2 1 2
2 1 2 1
1 2 2 2

has been transformed into one of the grids below by 0 or more column swaps and 0 or
more row swaps.
A B C D E
2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2
1 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 1
2 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 2

Which one is it?

(A) A (B) B (C) C (D) D (E) E

6. Bucket Game
Alice and Bob are playing a game. There are 7 white counters and 3 black counters in
a bucket. Alice and Bob take it in turns to remove counters. Each turn, a player may
remove between 1 and 3 white counters from the bucket or, alternatively, remove 1 or 2
black counters. The player who takes the last counter(s) out of the bucket wins.
Alice moves first. How many counters should she take to guarantee that she can win?

(A) 1 white (B) 2 white (C) 3 white (D) 1 black (E) 2 black
Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2015 (Intermediate) 4

Part B: Questions 7–15

Each question should be answered by a number in the range 0–999.
Questions are worth 2 points each.

7–9. Nerdy Nephew

You have to babysit your young nerdy nephew. To keep him amused and out of your
hair you devise the following problem for him.
‘Starting on the left, you progress through a list of numbers. You want to accumulate the
largest sum. As you arrive at a number, you have two choices: either add that number
and skip the next two numbers, or move on to the next number. For instance, with the
list 2 4 1 3 you would choose the 2 and the 3, giving 5, but with the list
2 6 1 3 you would simply choose the 6.’
Find the largest sum he could accumulate from each of the following lists:

7. 4 5 8 7 5 4 3 4 6 5

8. 5 9 3 7 1 8 6 8 6 2 9 7 8

9. 4 5 2 5 6 7 5 4 8 7 8 4 2 1 2
Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2015 (Intermediate) 5

10–12. Routes
Judith’s daily run takes her through a garden. There are several paths through the garden,
going from top left to bottom right. She always runs the shortest distance, but likes
variety.
For each of the gardens below, how many different routes could Judith take?

10.

11.

12.
Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2015 (Intermediate) 6

13–15. Board Game N x N

Wilma and James are playing a game that involves moving a token on a board with
numbers on a grid. The players take turns, moving the token one place right or down.
The game finishes when the token is placed on the bottom-right square.
When Wilma places the token onto a square, her score is increased by that number of
points. When James places the token onto a square, Wilma’s score is decreased by that
number of points. Wilma wants her final score to be as large as possible, whilst James
wants it to be as small as possible.
Wilma, who will only place the token on a white square, goes first and places the token
on the top-left square.
For each of the boards below, what is Wilma’s final score if both she and James play as
well as possible?

13.

9 6 5 4 7

4 4 3 5 4

14.

9 7 9 9

6 5 8 6

3 7 7 2

15.

7 5 8 3

3 3 2 1

2 3 4 6

4 6 8 3
 2015 CAT Answers
Question Intermediate

1 A

2 C

3 E

4 A

5 D

6 C

7 19

8 31

9 26

10 6

11 36

12 74

13 6

14 5

15 4
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