List of essay problems: (Trình bày lời giải chi tiết)

Problem 1. A group of students went on a field trip by bus. Each bus held the same number of students, each seat was filled, and
everyone had a seat. But on the way, one bus broke down. The students were distributed evenly among the remaining buses, and in

each bus 4 students had to stand. On the way home, two more buses broke down, and so they finished the trip with 18 students
standing in each bus. How many students were on this trip?

Problem 2. A box contained some red and blue balls. At least 90% of the balls were red. Peter first took the balls out of the box

one at a time. Out of the first 50 balls that he took out, only one was blue. Subsequently, he took out 8 balls each time where one
was blue and 7 were red. He continued in this manner until fewer than 8 balls were left in the box. Find the maximum number of
balls the box could have contained at the beginning.

Problem 3. Triangle ABC is an isosceles triangle with AC = BC. Point H is on AB such that CH is perpendicular to AB and

the angle bisector of ∠CAB meets BC at point P . If AP = 2CH, find the measure, in degrees, of ∠ACB.

Problem 4. In each cell of the 5 × 5 grid shown below, Peter may place several stones or leave it empty such that the total number
of stones for each and every row and columns are all different. What is the minimum number of stones that Peter must use to satisfy

the conditions?

Problem 5. Five teams took park in a soccer tournament, where each team plays each other exactly once. Each team gets 3 points

for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. After all matches has been played, is it possible that the total point scored of
these five teams are five consecutive positive integers? If yes, provide an example.

Problem 6. In the diagram below, the area of triangle EF G is equal to the area of triangle CDG, the ratio between the area of
triangles EBC and BCD is 3 : 2 and AD : DC = 2 : 1. If the area of triangle BDF is 29cm2 , then what is the area, in cm2 , of
triangle ABC?

Page 1 Quan Nguyen - quannguyentr@utexas.edu; qtn1@rice.edu

Problem 7. There are three problems in a mathematics contest. Students win gold, silver or bronze medals if they are able to solve

3, 24 or 1 problem(s) respectively. If each problem is solved by exactly 80 students and there are exactly 144 medalists, what is the
positive difference between the number of gold and bronze medalists?

Problem 8. There are 25 oranges, having different sizes, which are placed on a 5 by 5 grid. First, we take the biggest orange from

each of the rows. Thus, we now have 5 oranges, and then among them, we locate the smallest one among these 5 oranges and mark
it as X. After which, we place these 5 oranges back into their original positions. Similarly, take the smallest orange from each of
the columns. After doing this, we again have 5 oranges, and then among them, we locate the biggest one among these 5 oranges
and mark it as Y . After which, we again place these 5 oranges back into their original positions. Is it possible to determine which

orange is bigger, X or Y ? Justify your answer.

Problem 9. How many different arrangements are there to cover the 3×10 rectangle using ten 3×1 rectangles without overlapping?
Note: Each 3 × 1 rectangle can be placed horizontally or vertically.

Problem 10. A number is called “IMSO2” if it can be written as the sum of 2 consecutive positive integers. A number is called
“IMSO3” if it can be written as the sum of 3 consecutive positive integers. A number is called “IMSO4” if it can be written as
the sum of 4 consecutive positive integers. A number is called “IMSO5” if it can be written as the sum of 5 consecutive positive

integers. For example, the number 15 is an IMSO2 because it can be written as 15 = 7 + 8. Moreover, 15 is also an IMSO3 because
it can be written as 15 = 4 + 5 + 6. Furthermore, 15 is also an IMSO5 because it can be written as 15 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5.
However, 15 is not an IMSO4 because it cannot be written as the sum of 4 consecutive positive integers. From 1 to 2022, how
many of them are IMSO2, IMSO3 and IMSO5 but not IMSO4 at the same time?

Problem 10. A number is called “IMSO2” if it can be written as the sum of 2 consecutive positive integers. A number is called
“IMSO3” if it can be written as the sum of 3 consecutive positive integers. A number is called “IMSO4” if it can be written as
the sum of 4 consecutive positive integers. A number is called “IMSO5” if it can be written as the sum of 5 consecutive positive

Quan Nguyen - quannguyentr@utexas.edu; qtn1@rice.edu Page 2

integers. For example, the number 15 is an IMSO2 because it can be written as 15 = 7 + 8. Moreover, 15 is also an IMSO3 because
it can be written as 15 = 4 + 5 + 6. Furthermore, 15 is also an IMSO5 because it can be written as 15 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5.
However, 15 is not an IMSO4 because it cannot be written as the sum of 4 consecutive positive integers. From 1 to 2022, how

many of them are IMSO2, IMSO3 and IMSO5 but not IMSO4 at the same time?

Problem 11. In a chess tournament, each player will play with every other player exactly once. A win is worth two points, a draw
is worth one point, and a loss is worth zero. Two gifted students from an elementary school took part in a chess tournament at a

nearby university and the combined score of both elementary school students is 13. If the score of each university student is the
same, then what is the score that each university student got in the tournament?.

Problem 12. How many ways can we choose 3 different numbers from the set {1, 2, 3, . . . , 24, 25} so that they have no common

divisors greater than 1?

Problem 13. Four identical dice are stacked together in a row on a table as in the figure. Calculate the sum of all the numbers on

the 14 visible faces.

Problem 14. In the following figure, the area of the square ABCD is 16cm2 and the area of the square AEF G is 18cm2 . If
∠DAE = 45◦ , find the difference between the area of triangle BOC and triangle EOF .

Page 3 Quan Nguyen - quannguyentr@utexas.edu; qtn1@rice.edu