— Tilings and Colorings —

Łukasz Bożyk — MIN “Road To Olympiad” — March 27th , 2021

There is a special class of olympic problems about covering figures with tiles in a specific manner.
A popular way to state such a problem is to ask whether there exists a tiling satisfying prescribed
conditions, and usually meaningful arguments leading to answers base on properly chosen colorings.
Here we present an overview of problems of this type.
We say that a figure F consisting of unit squares (called cells) is tiled with or covered by a set of
pieces (each consisting of several cells) if the pieces do not overlap and each k-cell piece covers exactly
k whole cells of F.
For brevity of problem statements, let us distinguish rectangular m × n tiles (1 × 1 tile is a unit
square and 1 × 2 tile is a domino) and some non-rectangular ones (generally called polyominoes):

domino L-trimino T-tetromino L-tetromino S-tetromino J-tetromino Z-tetromino

When being assembled, the tiles can be rotated. Moreover, we assume that they are two-sided
(unless explicitly stated otherwise); e.g. L-tetrominoes may be flipped over (reflected) and used as
J-tetrominoes, so the two types are essentially the same.

For many presented problems an instructive (and recommended) follow-up is to generalize the
result. For example if something was proved about a particular board, it’s natural to ask, what is the
answer for n × n (or even m × n) boards.
The problems marked with i have been presented during the meeting and you may find their
solutions in the recording. In case a hint or additional explanation is needed (or you spot some
mistake), don’t hesitate to contact me at l.bozyk@uw.edu.pl; I will try to include the extra content
in the future versions of this file. Have fun with the problems!
A small gallery of coloring inspirations:
iA 1. Can an 8 × 8 board with two opposite corner cells removed be tiled with dominoes?

2. Can an 8 × 8 chessboard with any two cells of different color removed be tiled with dominoes?

3. Can the figure shown in the picture below be covered with dominoes?

4. Can a 7×7×7 cube without the central cell (the unit cube containing its center) be built with
1 × 1 × 2 bricks?

iB 5. Can a 10 × 10 board be tiled with T-tetrominoes?

6. Can a 10 × 10 board be tiled with 1 × 4 tiles?

7. Can a 13 × 13 board without the central cell be tiled with 1 × 4 tiles?

8. Can a 13 × 13 board be tiled with 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 tiles?

iC 9. An 8×8 board is covered by twenty-one 1×3 tiles and one unit square. Determine all possible
positions of the unit square.

10. Solve previous problem for a 7 × 7 board and sixteen 1 × 3 tiles.

11. An 8×8 board is covered by twenty-one L-triminoes and one unit square. Determine all possible
positions of the unit square.

12. We are given a collection of 33 cells of an 8 × 8 board. Prove that among them there are five
which are contained in pairwise different rows and columns.

i D 13. A rectangle is tiled with L-tetrominoes and S-tetrominoes. Prove that the number of used
L-tetrominoes is even.

14. Given is a square board of side length 2n+ 1 with one corner cell missing. Determine all n ­ 1
for which it can be tiled with dominoes in such a way that there are equally many vertical and
horizontal dominoes.

15. What is the maximum number of 2 × 3 × 3 bricks that can be placed inside an 8 × 8 × 9 box?

i E 16. Call an a × b tile with both a and b even an even rectangle. Suppose that an n × n board,
where n is odd, is tiled with even rectangles and unit squares. Determine the smallest possible
number of unit squares used in such a tiling.

17. On a 20×20 board 48 squares 2×2 are placed in such a way that they cover whole cells of the
board. Prove that one can fit at least one more such square.
 18. Can a 28 × 28 square be tiled with 1 × 10 and 1 × 11 tiles?

19. Suppose that 1 × 4 and 2 × 2 tiles are covering figure F. Prove that it’s impossible to replace
one of these tiles with a tile of the other kind and then reassemble all tiles in a way that they
will still be covering F.

i F 20. A 7 × 7 board is to be covered with one-sided P-pentominoes (i.e. they can be rotated, but
cannot be flipped over) in such a way that exactly one cell is covered with two tiles and all
the remaining cells — with exactly one tile. Determine all possible placements of the “doubly-
covered” cell.

P-pentomino

21. (a) Solve previous problem without the assumption that tiles cannot be reflected (i.e. allowing
Q-pentominoes).

Q-pentomino Y-pentomino

(b) Solve previous problem allowing not only one-sided P-pentominoes, but also one-sided
Y-pentominoes (but not to be flipped over).

22. We are at disposal of the following tiles: S-tetrominoes and L-triminoes. For every odd integer
n ­ 7 determine the smallest number of such tiles needed to cover an n × n square.

23. Several 1 × 4 tiles, 2 × 2 tiles and S-tetrominoes cover an 8 × 8 board. Prove that the number
of used 2 × 2 tiles is even.

24. Consider three faces of an 8×8×8 cube having a common vertex, each divided into cells. Can
they be covered with sixty-four 1 × 3 stickers (tiles that can be folded), each covering whole
cells?

i G 25. In this problem we don’t allow flipping tiles over (so S- and Z-tetrominoes are considered
different)). Suppose that a figure F can be tiled with S-tetrominoes. Prove than no matter how
we tile F using only S- and Z-tetrominoes, we always use an even number of Z-tetrominoes.

26. Find all pairs (m, n) of positive integers with the following property: it is possible to surround
an n × n × n cube with 1 × 1 × m bricks to obtain an (n + 2) × (n + 2) × (n + 2) cube (with the
same center as the initial one).

27. Rectangle R is subdivided into small rectangles. Assume that each small rectangle has at least
one side of integral length. Prove that R has at least one side of integral length.

28. Consider an infinite board with square cells, each containing a light bulb, which is initially
switched off. In one move one can change state (on/off) of all bulbs within a 3 × 3 or 4 × 4
square. Is it possible that after a finite number of moves there are only four light bulbs which
are switched on, and they form a 2 × 2 square?