In a competition, there are a contestants and b judges, where b ≥ 3 is an odd

integer. Each judge rates each contestant as either “pass” or “fail”. Suppose k is
a number such that, for any two judges, their ratings coincide for at most k
contestants.

Prove that k/a ≥ (b − 1)/(2b).

solution:

Remember to write b in the form of b = 2 * t + 1 (since it is an odd number).

This helps later when you try to find pairs of possible solutions.

If a contestant receives a "pass" (like a true, or a 1) or a "fail" (like a false,

or a 0) that means each contestants can have at most ONE of these two values
represented next to them (from each judge) and because of that there are certain
combinations that we can calculate as being groups of values that the problem is
referrring to (ratings coincide for up to k contestants, where k < a) so we have
the number of these groups as being combinations of contestants taken by 2 for the
number k is = (k*b*(b-1))/2.
If we arrange a table with the number of judges in separate rows (from 1 to b) and
the contestants in columns (from 1 to a) then we can have in a column x values of
0, and the remaining y values of 1 (x = b - y, because x + y = b, the ratings from
all judges for one contestant).
Remember, we wrote b = 2 * t + 1 (b is odd, and b >=3). This means t = (b-1)/2.
Now x can be 0 or 1, and y can be 0 or 1, and this means that in a column the total
number of groups of values that satisfy the requirement from the problem is the sum
of these combinations.

Replacing the b in the relationships above goive us the answer.