Practice Problems for the IMC Round 2

Grades 3-4

202 …………………………………………………………...………………………… Pg. 1

2022 …………………………………………………………...………………………… Pg. 5
2021 …………………………………………………………...………………………… Pg. 9
2020 …………………………………………………………...………………………… Pg. 14
2019 ……………………………………………………………………………...……… Pg. 18
2018 ………………………………………………………………...…………………… Pg. 21
2017 …………………………………………………………………...………………… Pg. 24
2016 …………………………………………………………………………...………… Pg. 27
 1

Round 2
Grades 3-4
1. Only octopuses and starfish live in an aquarium. Each octopus
has 8 arms, and each starfish has 5 arms. There are 34 arms in
total. How many animals are in the aquarium?

2. Tim draws a triangle, a square, and a pentagon on a board, and the sum of all three perimeters
equals 23. His friend Tom extends each of the triangle’s sides by 3 and uses the new sides to
make a new triangle. Then, he extends each of the square’s sides by 4 and uses them to make a
new square. Finally, Tom extends each of the pentagon’s sides by 5 and uses them to make a
new pentagon. Compute the sum of the perimeters of Tom’s three shapes.
(The perimeter of a shape is the sum of the lengths of all of its sides.)

3. 9 sparrows peck fewer than 1000 grains per day, and 10

sparrows peck more than 1100 grains per day. How many grains
do 8 sparrows peck per day? Assume that each sparrow pecks
the same whole number of grains per day.

2023: RSM Olympiad © 2023 Russian School of Mathematics

 2

4. 120 foreign students visited RSM. 40 of the students knew neither English nor Spanish, 65
students knew English, and 45 students knew Spanish. How many visitors knew both English
and Spanish?

5. 7 digits in the number 202320232023 are erased so that a 5-digit number remains. Find the
difference between the greatest possible and the least possible remaining 5-digit numbers.

6. Pirate Bill has a bill worth 100 ducats. His friend Colin
has a bunch of 5-ducat coins and a bunch of 10-ducat
coins. In how many ways can Colin exchange Bill's 100-
ducat bill for coins?

7. Let’s say that the digits 0 and 1 are small, and other digits are big. How many different 10-digit
counting numbers that contain only small digits are palindromes?
A palindrome is a number that is the same when written forward or backward. For example, the
numbers 1, and 111, and 1001 are palindromes.

8. There are 40 tenants (cats and dogs) at the RSM Pet Village. They live in one-pet houses that
are each occupied by either a cat or a dog, and two-pet houses that are each occupied by a cat
and a dog. There are twice as many one-pet houses as two-pet houses. Find the greatest possible
number of cats at the RSM Pet Village.

9. The expression

contains each counting number from 1 to 6. Each number is written in invisible ink on a blank card
with one number per card. Find the least possible value of the expression.

2023: RSM Olympiad © 2023 Russian School of Mathematics

 3

10. There are 16 different triangles and 6 counting numbers in the diagram. One of the numbers is
hidden behind a card. The weight of a shape is the sum of the numbers inside it. At least two
different triangles have the same weight. Find the greatest possible value of their common
weight.

11. Alex has a paper hexagon. Her first step is to cut the paper hexagon into two shapes with one
straight cut. Then she continues, and with each step she cuts one of the existing shapes into two
shapes with one straight cut. Find the least possible total number of sides of all the shapes that
Alex has after 23 steps. (Folding is not allowed.)

12. You have a machine with a screen and three buttons: red, green, and blue.
• If you press the red button, the number on the screen is decreased by 1, and both the red and
green buttons become locked (cannot be pressed).
• If you press the green button, the number on the screen is decreased by 2, and both the red and
green buttons become locked (cannot be pressed).
• If you press the blue button, the number on the screen is increased by 3, and both the red and
green buttons become unlocked.
The number 20 is displayed on the screen, and all buttons are unlocked. What is the greatest number
of times you could press a button to get the number 23 on the screen?

2023: RSM Olympiad © 2023 Russian School of Mathematics

4

Question No. Answer

1 5

2 2

3 888

4 30

5 13221 or 13,221

6 11

7 16

8 30

9 28

10 19

11 72

12 11
 5

IMC Round 2 2022

Grades 3-4
1. There are several puppies and kittens at the RSM Pet Hotel. The total number of puppy noses
and kitten eyes is 20. The total number of kitten tails and puppy ears is 22. Compute the total
number of pet paws at the RSM Pet Hotel.

2022: RSM Olympiad © 2022 Russian School of Mathematics

 6

2. You have a machine with a screen and three buttons: red, green, and blue.
• If you press the red button, the number on the screen is doubled.
• If you press the green button, the number on the screen is tripled.
• If you press the blue button, the number on the screen is multiplied by itself.
The number 1 is displayed on the screen. What is the least number of times you need to press a
button to get the number 216 on the screen?

3. Jimmy cuts a paper square into three identical rectangles

and uses them to make the letter U as shown in the
diagram. The perimeter of the U is 60. Compute the side
length of the original square.
(The perimeter of a shape is the sum of the lengths of all of
its sides.)

4. Alex wrote down more than nine different counting numbers. She wrote an odd number of odd
numbers and an even number of even numbers. Compute the least possible sum of all of Alex’s
numbers.

5. Seven pens and three pencils weigh the same as five erasers. An eraser and a pencil weigh the
same as two pens. How many pencils weigh the same as four erasers and a pen? Assume that all
pens weigh the same, all pencils weigh the same, and all erasers weigh the same.

6. Boris wrote nine different non-zero digits on nine cards, only one digit per card. He wants to
remove two cards such that the sum of the digits on two or more of the seven remaining cards
cannot be equal to 6. In how many different ways (ignore the order of removing the cards) can
Boris accomplish this task?

7. The sum of the three-digit numbers MRS and MSR is equal to the
three-digit number RSM. Different letters represent different digits,
and the same letters represent the same digits. Find the number RSM.

8. Lucie, Rosie, and Suzie buy stickers. Lucie buys 20 more stickers than half the girls’ total.
Rosie buys 22 fewer stickers than half the girls’ total. How many stickers does Suzie buy?

9. A counting number is totally odd if all its digits are odd and their sum is odd. How many totally
odd counting numbers less than 1000 are there?

2022: RSM Olympiad © 2022 Russian School of Mathematics

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10. One envelope contains only $5 bills, another envelope contains only $10 bills, and the last
envelope contains only $20 bills. No envelopes are empty and each of the three contains the
same number of bills. All of the bills are exchanged for $50 bills (the total dollar amount is
preserved). Find the least possible total number of bills in all three envelopes.

11.
An RSM sports field has a triangular shape. Poles with
letters R , S , M are located at the corners of the triangle
(see the diagram). During warm up, a student starts at any
pole, runs to another pole along a side of the triangle, then
runs to another pole along a side of the triangle, and so on.
The student cannot repeat a run along the same side of the
triangle in the same direction. For instance, she cannot run
from R to S twice, but she can run from R to S and at
some point from S to R. How many different ways are
there to complete the warm up that includes all six possible runs (see the diagram)? One possible
way is R-S-M-R-M-S-R.

12. In the “expression” 5 @ 5 @ 5 @ 5 @ 5 you replace each of the four @ symbols with either
+ or ×. You can insert one or more pairs of parentheses to control the order of operations. How
many different values do all possible resulting expressions have? For example,
5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 25 and 5 + (5 + 5) × 5 + 5 = 60. So, 25 and 60 are two values of possible
resulting expressions.

2022: RSM Olympiad © 2022 Russian School of Mathematics

8

Question No. Answer

1 56

2 5

3 9

4 67

5 20

6 3

7 954

8 2

9 130

10 30

11 18

12 23
 9

IMC Round 2 2021

Grades 3-4
1. Anna and Boris thought of one number each.
Anna’s number increased by 20 is 21 greater than Boris’s number decreased by 22.
How much greater is Boris’s number than Anna’s number?

2. In the expression

Sarah may erase one open parenthesis and one close parenthesis, or she may erase nothing.
Find the least possible value of the resulting expression.

3. The sum of 3 copies of the three-digit number RSM is equal to the four-digit number 1RSM.
Find the number RSM.
The same letters represent the same digits, but different letters may or may not represent
different digits.

4. Alex wrote 8 different digits from 1 to 8 on colored cards (3 red, 2 blue, 1 green, 1 yellow, and
1 grey), only one digit per card.
The sum of all the digits on the red cards equals the digit on the green card.
The sum of all the digits on the blue cards equals the digit on the yellow card.
What digit is written on the grey card?

Round 2 © 2021 Russian School of Mathematics

 10

5. A paper square with side length 100 is divided into nine non-overlapping rectangles as shown in
the diagram.
The length of the green rectangle equals 55, and its width equals 20.
Find the total area of the four red rectangles.
(The area of a rectangle is the product of its length and width.)

6. A tart contains either 3 white, or 4 red, or 5 black cherries.

A tray of 20 tarts contains 89 cherries.
How many red cherries are on the tray if it contains 3 tarts with white cherries?

7. Nine balls could be arranged in a square as shown in the left diagram, but not in a triangle with
all equal sides.
With one more ball, ten balls could be arranged in a triangle with all equal sides as shown in the
right diagram, but not in a square.

Suppose you have a bag containing 9 balls.

What is the least number of balls that you would have to add to the bag so that you could arrange all
of the balls in the bag into a square, and then you could rearrange all of the balls into a triangle
with all equal sides?
Assume that all balls are the same size.

Round 2 © 2021 Russian School of Mathematics

 11

8. Rachel downloaded a movie at a constant speed.

After she downloaded 24 MB, the remaining download time was 40 seconds.
After she downloaded 40 MB, the remaining download time was 16 seconds.
Compute the total time (in seconds) it took Rachel to download the full movie.

9. Twelve red points are arranged in two rows of six points each, as shown in the diagram.
How many triangles are hidden in this diagram?
A triangle can be any size and shape, but each of its three corners must be at a red point.

10. Find the greatest possible number of back-to-back zeros at the end of the product of three
counting numbers if the sum of these three numbers equals 83.
(The number 202100 has exactly 2 back-to-back zeros at the end.)

11. Four friends, Aali, Bali, Cali, and Dali, sit at a round table as shown in the diagram.
Bali sits to the left of Aali and to the right of Cali. Each has a jar with candies.
At exactly the same time, all four friends move half of the candies in their jar to their friend's jar on
the right. (So the candies move counterclockwise.)
Now, Aali’s jar has 20 candies, Bali’s jar has 21 candies, and Cali’s jar has 40 candies.
How many candies are now in Dali’s jar?

Round 2 © 2021 Russian School of Mathematics

 12

12. There are 3 RSM branches in Math City. The branches are called R , S , and M .
Arty plans a 4-day visit to Math City and wants to visit each branch.
She will visit one branch per day, which means that Arty will visit one branch more than once,
possibly on two days in a row.
How many different schedules can the RSM students prepare for Arty?
One possible schedule is R − S − R − M, where Arty visits branch R on the first and third days,
branch S on the second day, and branch M on the fourth day.

Round 2 © 2021 Russian School of Mathematics

13

Question No. Answer

1 21

2 7

3 500

4 6

5 3600 or 3,600

6 20

7 27

8 76

9 180

10 4

11 39

12 36
 14

2020 IMC Round 2 Grades 3-4

1. Alex wrote ten different digits on one red card and nine blue cards, only one digit per card.
The sum of all the digits on the blue cards is 37.
What digit is written on the red card?

2. Two pens cost $1 more than three pencils.

Two pencils cost 50¢ more than three erasers.
Eight pens cost how many more cents than eighteen erasers?
Assume that all pens cost the same, all pencils cost the same, and all erasers cost the same.

3. Imagine that one side of the green shape shown in the

diagram is also one side of a red triangular shape located
outside the green shape.
How many of the following five statements about the
resulting red-and-green shape are true?

• It could be a triangle.
• It cannot be a quadrilateral.
• It could be a pentagon.
• It cannot be a hexagon.
• It could be an octagon.

(Note: a quadrilateral is a shape with four sides; an octagon is a shape with eight sides.)

4. Find the sum of all the digits of the result of the multiplication:

5. There are 100 puppies at a “Learn with Your Pet” event. Some are pure white, some are pure
black, and the rest are tri -colored with one white, one black, and two brown paws each. The
puppies have 221 white and 34 brown paws altogether.
How many black puppies are at the event?

6. Dina took a rectangular piece of paper with side lengths 10 and 20, and divided it into four non-
overlapping rectangular shapes. One of the rectangles has side lengths 5 and 6, and another has
side lengths 10 and 15.
Compute the sum of the perimeters of the two other rectangles if they do not share a side.
(The perimeter of a rectangle is the sum of the lengths of all of its sides.)

Grades 3-4 © 2020 Russian School of Mathematics

 15

7. The sum of the three-digit numbers MAS and MRS is equal to the three-digit number RSM.
Find the number RSM if all its digits are even.
Different letters represent different digits, and the same letters represent the same digits.

8. Nick has $5, $10, $20, and $100 bills that total 17 bills. He exchanges all his $5 bills for $1
bills, then all his $10 bills for $5 bills, then all his $20 bills for $10 bills, and finally all his $100
bills for $50 bills. At the end, Nick has a total of 52 bills.
How many $5 bills did Nick have originally?
Assume that each exchange preserves the total dollar amount of Nick’s money.

9. Lucie and Suzie buy greeting cards. Lucie buys 10 more cards than half the girls’ total.
How many more cards should Suzie buy so that she is the one that has 10 more cards than half the
girls’ total?
Assume that Lucie does not make any purchases after her initial purchase.

10. The hanger shown in the diagram is balanced. Both cherries weigh the same, both mushrooms
weigh the same, both carrots weigh the same, and all three strawberries weigh the same.
How many grams does the exotic fruit weigh if the total weight of all ten items is 84 grams?
Assume that all parts of the hanger itself (horizontal bars and vertical strings) weigh nothing.

Grades 3-4 © 2020 Russian School of Mathematics

 16

11. Each of six jars contains the same number of candies. Alice moves half of the candies from the
first jar to the second jar. Then Boris moves half of the candies from the second jar to the third
jar. Then Clara moves half of the candies from the third jar to the fourth jar. Then Dara moves
half of the candies from the fourth jar to the fifth jar. Finally, Ed moves half of the candies from
the fifth jar to the sixth jar. At the end, 30 candies are in the fourth jar, and 31 candies are in the
fifth jar.
How many candies are now in the sixth jar?

12. The diagram shows three famous RSM cafes, R, S, and M. It takes one step to move from one
of these cafes directly to another.
How many different ways are there to start at R and end at M in exactly five steps?
One possible way is
R − M − R − S − R − M.

Grades 3-4 © 2020 Russian School of Mathematics

17

Answers

Question No. Answer

1 8

2 700

3 3

4 10

5 32

6 28

7 462

8 6

9 40

10 18

11 63

12 11
 FINAL ROUND
ID ____________________________________________
18
Name ________________________________________ Grades
Grade __________________________________________
RSM Affiliation _________________________________ 3-4
Test Location __________________________________

1 In the puzzle below, each card hides a digit. What digit is hidden
under the card with the question mark?

20 + ? + 19 = 100
2 Gary has 20 more candies than Mary. If Gary gives Mary 19 of his
candies, Mary would have how many more candies than Gary?

3 Numbers were written in the twelve boxes shown, one number per
box. For every four boxes in a row, the sum of their numbers was
12. Most of the numbers got erased over time, but three of them
remain. What number was written in the last box on the right?

Please fold over on line. Write answers on back.

0 1 2
4 Four cats – Astro, Buttons, Calico, and Duchess – bought
20 mice altogether. Each of the four cats bought an odd
number of mice, but none of them bought exactly 13
mice. Buttons bought more mice than Astro, fewer mice
than Duchess, and as many mice as Calico. How many
mice did Calico buy?

5 Natasha drew five straight lines (from border to border) on a

triangular piece of paper. Then she cut the paper along all these
lines and got several shapes. What is the largest number of sides
one of Natasha's shapes could have?

6 A family has many children – brothers and sisters. Each of them wrote
a statement about the family. Five of these statements are as follows:
• I have more brothers than sisters;
• I have more sisters than brothers;
• I have as many brothers as sisters;
• I have fewer sisters than brothers;
• I have fewer brothers than sisters.
What is the greatest possible number of these statements that can be
true at the same time?
 FINAL ROUND
ID ____________________________________________
19
Name ________________________________________ Grades
Grade __________________________________________
RSM Affiliation _________________________________ 3-4
Test Location __________________________________

7 Dubbles the monster has twice as many ears as

eyes, twice as many legs as arms, and twice as many
tongues as noses. Overall he has 39 ears, eyes, legs,
arms, tongues, and noses. How many ears, legs, and
tongues does Dubbles the monster have altogether?

8 How many different counting numbers are there containing only

odd digits such that for each of these numbers, the sum of all of its
digits equals seven?

9 A square shape is divided into two non-overlapping rectangular

shapes. Each of these two rectangular shapes is divided into

Please fold over on line. Write answers on back.

three non-overlapping square shapes. Compute the sum of the
perimeters of these six squares (in feet) if the perimeter of the
original square is 60 feet. (The perimeter of a square is the sum of
the lengths of all of its sides.)

10 In 2017, a long row of trees was planted in the empty

RSM Garden. In 2018, a tree was planted between
every two adjacent (next to each other) trees planted
in the previous year. In 2019, a tree was planted
between every two adjacent trees planted in the
previous years, bringing the total number of trees in
RSM Garden to 877. How many trees were planted in
RSM Garden in 2018?

11 How many quadrilaterals of all sizes

and positions are there in the diagram,
including quadrilaterals that are
made up of more than one shape? (A
quadrilateral is a shape with four sides.)

12 Say that a counting number is “five-important” if it is a multiple of

5 and contains the digit 5. For instance, the numbers 125, 55, and
550 are five-important, but the numbers 59, 2019, and 2020 are
not. How many different five-important numbers are there between
1 and 2019?
20
 ID ____________________________________________
21
Name ________________________________________
Grade __________________________________________
RSM Affiliation _________________________________
Test Location __________________________________
 ID ____________________________________________
22
Name ________________________________________
Grade __________________________________________
RSM Affiliation _________________________________
Test Location __________________________________
23
 FINAL ROUND
24 First Name _____________________________________
Last Name _____________________________________ Grades
Grade __________________________________________
School __________________________________________ 3-4
City ___________________________________________
RSM Branch____________________________________

1 A princess is riding a horse. A bird is on her shoulder. The three

of them together have how many more legs than heads?

2 A ring is a flat shape formed by an inner

circle and an outer circle, as shown in
the first diagram. How many rings of all
sizes and types are there in the second
diagram containing five circles?

3 Mary and Jack are standing in line. Mary is the second in line,
and Jack is the third from the end. There are 12 people in front
of Jack. How many people are in line behind Mary?

Please fold over on line. Write answers on back.

4 Find the largest 6-digit number such that the sum of all its digits
equals 40.

5 Yesterday Alice ate several candies and cookies, for a total of

12. Today she ate 3 fewer candies than yesterday, and twice as
many cookies as yesterday, for a total of 14. How many candies
did Alice eat yesterday?

6 In a very long toy train, the first and last cars were blue. After each
blue car (except the last one), there were two yellow cars. After
each pair of yellow cars, there was a red car. After each red car,
there was a blue car. The first five train cars are shown in the
picture. Oleg picked a car and recolored all cars in front of it green.
Then Joyce picked a car and recolored all cars behind it green.
What is the least possible number of non-green cars in the
recolored toy train if it contains 7 more yellow cars than blue cars?
 FINAL ROUND
First Name _____________________________________
25
Last Name _____________________________________ Grades
Grade __________________________________________
School __________________________________________ 3-4
City ___________________________________________
RSM Branch____________________________________

7 Ilya wrote the counting numbers from 1 to 50. He started

this way: 123456789101112, and stopped when he wrote
50. How many odd digits did he write?
8 Anna really likes numbers and decided to collect them. She
started her collection from the number 35, which was a birthday
gift from RSM. After that, every week Anna added one more new
number to the collection by selecting the smallest counting
number which was neither a multiple nor a factor of any number
already in the collection. What number was added to Anna's
collection on week 10? Note that after 10 weeks the collection
contained 11 different numbers.

93

Please fold over on line. Write answers on back.

How many different ways are there to place four
different digits from 1 to 4 inside the four square cells
of a 2-by-2 grid (one digit per cell) such that for every
pair of digits that are 1 apart (such as 2 and 3), their
square cells share a side?

10 There are several balls in the RSM Sport Center. At least

one of the balls is $1 cheaper than another one. At least one
of the balls is $2 cheaper than another one. At least one of
the balls is $3 cheaper than another one. At least one of the
balls is $4 cheaper than another one. At least one of the
balls is $6 cheaper than another one. At least one of the
balls is $7 cheaper than another one.
What is the least possible number of balls in the RSM Sport
Center?
11 How many more triangles (of all sizes and
positions) than squares (of all sizes and positions)
are there in the diagram?

12 There are six different cards (three red and three blue) with the
letters R, S, M on them. Each card has exactly one letter, and each
of these letters is on exactly two cards (one red and one blue). How
many different ways are there to put all six cards in a row with
letters face up and right-side up such that every card appears right
next to another card with the same letter?
26

Answers:
Problem No. Answer

1 5

2 10

3 13

4 999940

5 7

6 22

7 46

8 31

9 8

10 4

11 14

12 48
 FINAL ROUND
27 First Name _____________________________________
Last Name _____________________________________ Grades
Grade __________________________________________
School __________________________________________ 3-4
City ___________________________________________
RSM Branch____________________________________

1 In the puzzle below, each card hides a digit. What digit is hidden
under the card with the question mark?

999 + = ?

2 Eight kids are holding a total of 15 balloons. Some balloons are

red, and the rest are blue. Nobody holds two or more balloons
of the same color, and nobody shares a balloon. How many kids
hold exactly one balloon each?

Please fold over on line. Write answers on back.

Grandma sent Jack a bag of candy. When Jack opened it, he found
inside 8 large boxes of candy. Each of these large boxes had 6
smaller boxes of candy inside, and each of the smaller boxes had
10 candies. How many candy boxes of all sizes were in the bag?

4 A paper rectangle is folded once to get a 2 cm-by-3 cm rectangle.

What is the greatest possible perimeter (in centimeters) of the
original rectangle? (The perimeter of a rectangle is the sum of the
lengths of all of its sides.)

5
RSM opened a new branch for puppies and kittens in Pawville.
When the principal counted ears and tails of all 30 students, he
discovered there were twice as many kittens' ears as puppies' tails.
How many kittens were at the RSM-Pawville branch (if every animal
had the usual number of body parts)?

6 Aurora made three paper triangles, four paper squares, and

five paper octagons. Barbara made several paper pentagons.
Aurora’s shapes all together have as many sides as all Barbara’s
pentagons do. How many pentagons did Barbara make?
 FINAL ROUND
28 First Name _____________________________________
Last Name _____________________________________ Grades
Grade __________________________________________
School __________________________________________ 3-4
City ___________________________________________
RSM Branch____________________________________

7 A very long circus train is loaded with giraffes, clowns, and elephants.
The first seven train cars are shown in the picture. If the pattern
continues, how many beings will be riding in train car number 2016?

8 Ravi wrote (using white chalk) the number 123,456,789 on the

board. Then he wrote (using yellow chalk) the number 20 above
every odd digit on the board. Finally, he wrote (using yellow chalk)
the number 16 below every white even digit on the board. How
many even digits are on the board now?

Please fold over on line. Write answers on back.

93 In the diagram, each small square of the grid is one inch on a side.
If the pattern continues, how many inches would the perimeter of
the 504th shape be?

Shape1 Shape 2 Shape 3 Shape 4

10 Mrs. Adder wrote some digits on the board. All of the digits were
different. After she erased three of them, the remaining digits added
up to 40. What is the product of the erased digits?

11 If the digits are all drawn by connecting the dots exactly as shown,
a certain pair of the digits could fit upright within the same dotted
rectangle without sharing any of the lines. Write the larger 2-digit
number that uses both these digits.

12 How many triangles of all sizes and positions are

there in the diagram, including triangles that are
made up of more than one shape?
29
2016 RSM Olympiad 3-4

1. In the puzzle below, each card hides a digit. What digit is hidden under the card with the
question mark?

Answer: 9
Solution 1. Note that 999 is the largest 3-digit number. Therefore, if we add to it any 1-
digit number except 0, the sum would have more than 3 digits. Thus, the only possibility
is that we add 0. In this case the sum is 999, so the card with question mark hides digit 9.

Solution 2. One possibility for the statement partially hidden by cards is 999 + 0 = 999. In
this case the card with the question mark hides digit 9. Since this possibility satisfies all
the conditions of the problem, the answer is 9.

2. Eight kids are holding a total of 15 balloons. Some balloons are red, and the rest are blue.
Nobody holds two or more balloons of the same color, and nobody shares a balloon. How
many kids hold exactly one balloon each?
Answer: 1
Solution 1. There are only two colors of balloons and nobody holds two or more balloons
of the same color. Therefore each kid holds at most two balloons. If each of the eight kids
holds exactly two balloons (one red and one blue), we would have a total of 8×2 = 16
balloons. But they hold a total of 15 = 16 – 1 balloons, and nobody shares a balloon. This
means that exactly one kid must hold just one balloon.

Solution 2. One possibility is the following: seven kids hold exactly two balloons each
(one red and one blue), and one kid holds exactly one red balloon, for a total of 7×2 + 1 =
15 balloons. Since this possibility satisfies all the conditions of the problem, the answer is
1.

3. Grandma sent Jack a bag of candy. When Jack opened it, he found inside 8 large boxes of
candy. Each of these large boxes had 6 smaller boxes of candy inside, and each of the
smaller boxes had 10 candies. How many candy boxes of all sizes were in the bag?
Answer: 56
Solution. There were 8 large boxes of candy, with 6 smaller boxes per large box, for a
total of 8×6 = 48 smaller boxes. Therefore there were 8 + 48 = 56 candy boxes of all
sizes in the bag.

4. A paper rectangle is folded once to get a 2 cm-by-3 cm rectangle. What is the greatest
possible perimeter (in centimeters) of the original rectangle? (The perimeter of a
rectangle is the sum of the lengths of all of its sides.)
Answer: 16
Solution. Note that there are just two possibilities for the original rectangle. The first one
is when one of its sides is 2 cm long, and the crease is along this side. In this case the
longest possible adjacent side of the original rectangle is 2×3 = 6 cm long (twice the
length of the folded side) and the greatest possible perimeter of the original rectangle is
2×(2 + 6) = 16 cm. The second possibility is when one of the sides of the original
rectangle is 3 cm long, and the crease is along this side. In this case the longest possible
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adjacent side of the original rectangle is 2×2= 4 cm long (twice the length of the folded
side) and the greatest possible perimeter of the original rectangle is 2×(3 + 4) = 14 cm.
Since 16 > 14, the answer is 16.

5. RSM opened a new branch for puppies and kittens in Pawville. When the principal
counted ears and tails of all 30 students, he discovered there were twice as many kittens'
ears as puppies' tails. How many kittens were at the RSM-Pawville branch (if every
animal had the usual number of body parts)?
Answer: 15
Solution. Since kittens have two ears each, there were twice as many kittens’ ears as
kittens. Since puppies have one tail each, there were as many puppies’ tails as puppies.
So the number of kittens equals half the number of kittens’ ears, and therefore the number
of kittens equals the number of puppies’ tails which equals the number of puppies. This
means that the RSM-Pawville branch had the same number of puppies and kittens for a
total of 30 students. Thus there were 15 (one half of 30) kittens at the RSM-Pawville
branch.

6. Aurora made three paper triangles, four paper squares, and five paper octagons. Barbara
made several paper pentagons. Aurora’s shapes all together have as many sides as all
Barbara’s pentagons do. How many pentagons did Barbara make?
Answer: 13
Solution. Recall that a triangle has 3 sides, a square has 4 sides, a pentagon has 5 sides,
and an octagon has 8 sides. Thus, Aurora’s triangles have a total of 3×3 = 9 sides, her
squares have a total of 4×4 = 16 sides, and her octagons have a total of 5×8 = 40 sides.
Her shapes have a total of 9 + 16 + 40 = 65 sides. Barbara’s pentagons all together have
as many sides as all Aurora’s shapes (65), so Barbara made 65÷5 = 13 pentagons.

7. A very long circus train is loaded with giraffes, clowns, and elephants. The first seven
train cars are shown in the picture. If the pattern continues, how many beings will be
riding in train car number 2016?

Answer: 4
Solution. The pattern repeats every three cars: three giraffes followed by an elephant
followed by four clowns. Thus any car whose number is a multiple of 3 will have four
clowns. Since 2016 = 672×3 is a multiple of 3, 4 beings (4 clowns) will be riding in train
car number 2016.

8. Ravi wrote (using white chalk) the number 123,456,789 on the board. Then he wrote
(using yellow chalk) the number 20 above every odd digit on the board. Finally, he wrote
(using yellow chalk) the number 16 below every white even digit on the board. How
many even digits are on the board now?
Answer: 18
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Solution 1. Ravi’s initial number in white chalk contained 5 odd (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) and 4 even
(2, 4, 6, 8) digits. For each of these 5 (white) odd digits, he wrote the number 20 in
yellow above it. Since both digits 2 and 0 are even, Ravi wrote 10 yellow even digits (5
twos and 5 zeroes). For each of the 4 white even digits, he wrote the number 16 in yellow
below it. Since 1 is odd and 6 is even, Ravi wrote 4 yellow odd digits (1s) and 4 more
yellow even digits (6s). Thus the total number of even digits on the board now is 4 (white
even digits from the original number) + 10 (yellow 2s and 0s) + 4 (yellow 6s) = 18.

Solution 2. Every white digit on the board is either even or odd. Ravi wrote the number
20 in yellow above every (white) odd digit on the board. Both digits 2 and 0 are even, so
each white odd digit “owns” 2 even digits on the board. Then Ravi wrote the number 16
in yellow below every white even digit on the board. Only one of the digits 1 and 6 is
even (6), so each white even digit also “owns” 2 even digits on the board (the one below
it and itself). Thus, now there are twice as many even (white and yellow) digits on the
board as white digits. Since Ravi wrote 9 white digits on the board, there are a total of
2×9 = 18 even digits on the board now.

9. In the diagram, each small square of the grid is one inch on a side. If the pattern
continues, how many inches would the perimeter of the 504th shape be?

Shape 1 Shape 2 Shape 3 Shape 4

Answer: 2016
Solution. For each shape, the length of its bottom side (in inches) is the same as the
shape’s number. The sum of the lengths of all of the shape’s other horizontal sides is the
same as the length of its bottom side. The length of the shape’s right side (in inches) is
the same as the shape’s number. And the sum of the lengths of all of the shape’s other
vertical sides is the same as the length of its right side. Thus, for each shape its perimeter
(in inches) is four times as large as the shape’s number. Therefore, the perimeter of the
504th shape would be 4×504 = 2016 inches.

10. Mrs. Adder wrote some digits on the board. All of the digits were different. After she
erased three of them, the remaining digits added up to 40. What is the product of the
erased digits?
Answer: 0
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2016 RSM Olympiad 3-4

Solution 1. Since the digits on the board were all different, and only ten different digits
(from 0 to 9) exist, the sum of the digits before erasing must have been 0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4
+ 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45 or less. After erasing, the remaining digits added up to 40,
therefore the sum of the three erased digits must have been 45 – 40 = 5 or less. Thus, one
of the erased digits must be 0, otherwise the sum of the three different erased digits
would be at least 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 which is greater than 5. Since one of the erased digits is 0,
the product of the erased digits is 0 as well.

Solution 2. One possibility is the following: Mrs. Adder wrote all ten different digits
(from 0 to 9) on the board, and then erased three digits 0, 2, and 3. In this case the
remaining digits added up to 1 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 40, and the product of the erased
digits is 0×2×3 = 0. Since this possibility satisfies all the conditions of the problem, the
answer is 0.

11. If the digits are all drawn by connecting the dots exactly as shown, a certain pair of the
digits could fit upright within the same dotted rectangle without sharing any of the lines.
Write the larger 2-digit number that uses both these digits.

Answer: 74
Solution 1. By comparing 9 with each of the smaller digits, we see that no digit can fit in
the same dotted rectangle with 9 without sharing any of the lines. By comparing 8 with
each of the smaller digits, we see that 8 cannot be one of the digits either. By comparing
7 with each of the smaller digits, we find that 4 and 7 could fit upright within the same
dotted rectangle without sharing any of the lines, so the pair is (4, 7), and the larger 2-
digit number that uses both digits 4 and 7 is 74 (since 74 > 47).

Solution 2. Every digit drawn by connecting the dots exactly as shown has at least one
line somewhere along the boundary of the dotted rectangle. Thus, if two digits could fit
upright within the same dotted rectangle without sharing any of the lines, neither of these
two digits is 0. Similarly, neither of them is 8. Every digit drawn by connecting the dots
exactly as shown has a horizontal or a vertical line at the bottom half (which includes
middle horizontal line) of the dotted rectangle. Thus, if two digits could fit upright within
the same dotted rectangle without sharing any of the lines, neither of these two digits is 6.
Similarly, neither of them is 9. Digit 5 contains all three possible horizontal lines. Other
digits (except 1) contain at least one horizontal line each, and digits 1 and 5 share the
bottom right vertical line. Thus, if two digits could fit upright within the same dotted
rectangle without sharing any of the lines, neither of these two digits is 5. The remaining
digits are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7. Digit 3 contains both possible diagonal lines. Other remaining
digits (except 4) contain at least one diagonal line each, and digits 3 and 4 share the
middle horizontal line. Thus, if two digits could fit upright within the same dotted
rectangle without sharing any of the lines, neither of these two digits is 3. The remaining
digits are 1, 2, 4, and 7. But digits 1, 2, and 4 share the top right vertical line, so one of
the digits in the pair must be 7. Digits 1 and 7 share the top diagonal line, and digits 2 and
7 share the top horizontal line. The only remaining possibility is digits 4 and 7. This pair
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of digits indeed could fit upright within the same dotted rectangle without sharing any of
the lines. There are just two 2-digit numbers each using both digits 4 and 7 (47 and 74),
and the larger of them is 74.

12. How many triangles of all sizes and positions are there in the diagram,
including triangles that are made up of more than one shape?
Answer: 11
Solution. The original shape, a pentagon, is divided into five small
triangles and a quadrilateral that will be our building blocks. There are
5 triangles made up of exactly one building block each. There are 4 triangles made up of
exactly two triangular building blocks each (take any two triangular building blocks that
share a side), and 1 triangle made up of a triangular and a non-triangular building block.
There is 1 triangle made up of exactly three (triangular) building blocks. And there is no
triangle made up of four or more building blocks. Altogether there are 5 + 4 + 1 + 1 = 11
triangles of all sizes and positions in the diagram.