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Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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k a May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
May 1, 2025
May is an exciting month! National MATHCOUNTS is the second week of May in Washington D.C. and our Founder, Richard Rusczyk will be presenting a seminar, Preparing Strong Math Students for College and Careers, on May 11th.

Are you interested in working towards MATHCOUNTS and don’t know where to start? We have you covered! If you have taken Prealgebra, then you are ready for MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics. Already aiming for State or National MATHCOUNTS and harder AMC 8 problems? Then our MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Advanced course is for you.

Summer camps are starting next month at the Virtual Campus in math and language arts that are 2 - to 4 - weeks in duration. Spaces are still available - don’t miss your chance to have an enriching summer experience. There are middle and high school competition math camps as well as Math Beasts camps that review key topics coupled with fun explorations covering areas such as graph theory (Math Beasts Camp 6), cryptography (Math Beasts Camp 7-8), and topology (Math Beasts Camp 8-9)!

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
[list][*]May 9th, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, Casework 2: Overwhelming Evidence — A Text Adventure, a game where participants will work together to navigate the map, solve puzzles, and win! All are welcome.
[*]May 19th, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, What's Next After Beast Academy?, designed for students finishing Beast Academy and ready for Prealgebra 1.
[*]May 20th, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 1 Math Jam, Problems 1 to 4, join the Canada/USA Mathcamp staff for this exciting Math Jam, where they discuss solutions to Problems 1 to 4 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz!
[*]May 21st, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 2 Math Jam, Problems 5 and 6, Canada/USA Mathcamp staff will discuss solutions to Problems 5 and 6 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz![/list]
Our full course list for upcoming classes is below:
All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

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0 replies
jlacosta
May 1, 2025
0 replies
k i Adding contests to the Contest Collections
dcouchman   1
N Apr 5, 2023 by v_Enhance
Want to help AoPS remain a valuable Olympiad resource? Help us add contests to AoPS's Contest Collections.

Find instructions and a list of contests to add here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c40244h1064480_contests_to_add
1 reply
dcouchman
Sep 9, 2019
v_Enhance
Apr 5, 2023
k i Zero tolerance
ZetaX   49
N May 4, 2019 by NoDealsHere
Source: Use your common sense! (enough is enough)
Some users don't want to learn, some other simply ignore advises.
But please follow the following guideline:


To make it short: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!
If you don't have common sense, don't post.


More specifically:

For new threads:


a) Good, meaningful title:
The title has to say what the problem is about in best way possible.
If that title occured already, it's definitely bad. And contest names aren't good either.
That's in fact a requirement for being able to search old problems.

Examples:
Bad titles:
- "Hard"/"Medium"/"Easy" (if you find it so cool how hard/easy it is, tell it in the post and use a title that tells us the problem)
- "Number Theory" (hey guy, guess why this forum's named that way¿ and is it the only such problem on earth¿)
- "Fibonacci" (there are millions of Fibonacci problems out there, all posted and named the same...)
- "Chinese TST 2003" (does this say anything about the problem¿)
Good titles:
- "On divisors of a³+2b³+4c³-6abc"
- "Number of solutions to x²+y²=6z²"
- "Fibonacci numbers are never squares"


b) Use search function:
Before posting a "new" problem spend at least two, better five, minutes to look if this problem was posted before. If it was, don't repost it. If you have anything important to say on topic, post it in one of the older threads.
If the thread is locked cause of this, use search function.

Update (by Amir Hossein). The best way to search for two keywords in AoPS is to input
[code]+"first keyword" +"second keyword"[/code]
so that any post containing both strings "first word" and "second form".


c) Good problem statement:
Some recent really bad post was:
[quote]$lim_{n\to 1}^{+\infty}\frac{1}{n}-lnn$[/quote]
It contains no question and no answer.
If you do this, too, you are on the best way to get your thread deleted. Write everything clearly, define where your variables come from (and define the "natural" numbers if used). Additionally read your post at least twice before submitting. After you sent it, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.


For answers to already existing threads:


d) Of any interest and with content:
Don't post things that are more trivial than completely obvious. For example, if the question is to solve $x^{3}+y^{3}=z^{3}$, do not answer with "$x=y=z=0$ is a solution" only. Either you post any kind of proof or at least something unexpected (like "$x=1337, y=481, z=42$ is the smallest solution). Someone that does not see that $x=y=z=0$ is a solution of the above without your post is completely wrong here, this is an IMO-level forum.
Similar, posting "I have solved this problem" but not posting anything else is not welcome; it even looks that you just want to show off what a genius you are.

e) Well written and checked answers:
Like c) for new threads, check your solutions at least twice for mistakes. And after sending, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.



To repeat it: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!


Everything definitely out of range of common sense will be locked or deleted (exept for new users having less than about 42 posts, they are newbies and need/get some time to learn).

The above rules will be applied from next monday (5. march of 2007).
Feel free to discuss on this here.
49 replies
ZetaX
Feb 27, 2007
NoDealsHere
May 4, 2019
Computing functions
BBNoDollar   3
N an hour ago by wh0nix
Let $f : [0, \infty) \to [0, \infty)$, $f(x) = \dfrac{ax + b}{cx + d}$, with $a, d \in (0, \infty)$, $b, c \in [0, \infty)$. Prove that there exists $n \in \mathbb{N}^*$ such that for every $x \geq 0$
\[
f_n(x) = \frac{x}{1 + nx}, \quad \text{if and only if } f(x) = \frac{x}{1 + x}, \quad \forall x \geq 0.
\](For $n \in \mathbb{N}^*$ and $x \geq 0$, the notation $f_n(x)$ represents $\underbrace{(f \circ f \circ \dots \circ f)}_{n \text{ times}}(x)$. )
3 replies
BBNoDollar
May 21, 2025
wh0nix
an hour ago
Computing functions
BBNoDollar   8
N an hour ago by wh0nix
Let $f : [0, \infty) \to [0, \infty)$, $f(x) = \dfrac{ax + b}{cx + d}$, with $a, d \in (0, \infty)$, $b, c \in [0, \infty)$. Prove that there exists $n \in \mathbb{N}^*$ such that for every $x \geq 0$
\[
f_n(x) = \frac{x}{1 + nx}, \quad \text{if and only if } f(x) = \frac{x}{1 + x}, \quad \forall x \geq 0.
\](For $n \in \mathbb{N}^*$ and $x \geq 0$, the notation $f_n(x)$ represents $\underbrace{(f \circ f \circ \dots \circ f)}_{n \text{ times}}(x)$. )
8 replies
BBNoDollar
May 18, 2025
wh0nix
an hour ago
Find the remainder
Jackson0423   1
N an hour ago by wh0nix

Find the remainder when
\[
\frac{5^{2000} - 1}{4}
\]is divided by \(64\).
1 reply
Jackson0423
2 hours ago
wh0nix
an hour ago
IMO 2018 Problem 1
juckter   170
N an hour ago by Adywastaken
Let $\Gamma$ be the circumcircle of acute triangle $ABC$. Points $D$ and $E$ are on segments $AB$ and $AC$ respectively such that $AD = AE$. The perpendicular bisectors of $BD$ and $CE$ intersect minor arcs $AB$ and $AC$ of $\Gamma$ at points $F$ and $G$ respectively. Prove that lines $DE$ and $FG$ are either parallel or they are the same line.

Proposed by Silouanos Brazitikos, Evangelos Psychas and Michael Sarantis, Greece
170 replies
juckter
Jul 9, 2018
Adywastaken
an hour ago
Nice "if and only if" function problem
ICE_CNME_4   2
N an hour ago by wh0nix
Let $f : [0, \infty) \to [0, \infty)$, $f(x) = \dfrac{ax + b}{cx + d}$, with $a, d \in (0, \infty)$, $b, c \in [0, \infty)$. Prove that there exists $n \in \mathbb{N}^*$ such that for every $x \geq 0$
\[
f_n(x) = \frac{x}{1 + nx}, \quad \text{if and only if } f(x) = \frac{x}{1 + x}, \quad \forall x \geq 0.
\](For $n \in \mathbb{N}^*$ and $x \geq 0$, the notation $f_n(x)$ represents $\underbrace{(f \circ f \circ \dots \circ f)}_{n \text{ times}}(x)$. )

Please do it at 9th grade level. Thank you!
2 replies
ICE_CNME_4
Yesterday at 7:23 PM
wh0nix
an hour ago
Minimum of this fuction
persamaankuadrat   1
N 2 hours ago by alexheinis
Source: KTOM January 2020
If $x$ is a positive real number, find the minimum of the following expression

$$\lfloor x \rfloor + \frac{500}{\lceil x\rceil^{2}}$$
1 reply
persamaankuadrat
3 hours ago
alexheinis
2 hours ago
A well-known circle hides in the dark
darij grinberg   15
N 3 hours ago by TUAN2k8
Source: All-Russian Olympiad 2006 finals, problem 11.4 (problem 4 for grade 11)
Given a triangle $ ABC$. The angle bisectors of the angles $ ABC$ and $ BCA$ intersect the sides $ CA$ and $ AB$ at the points $ B_1$ and $ C_1$, and intersect each other at the point $ I$. The line $ B_1C_1$ intersects the circumcircle of triangle $ ABC$ at the points $ M$ and $ N$. Prove that the circumradius of triangle $ MIN$ is twice as long as the circumradius of triangle $ ABC$.
15 replies
darij grinberg
May 6, 2006
TUAN2k8
3 hours ago
unsolved nt
MuradSafarli   1
N 3 hours ago by whwlqkd
Find all prime numbers $p$ such that $p^2 - 12$ is also a prime number.
1 reply
MuradSafarli
3 hours ago
whwlqkd
3 hours ago
IMO Problem 4
iandrei   106
N 3 hours ago by alexanderchew
Source: IMO ShortList 2003, geometry problem 1
Let $ABCD$ be a cyclic quadrilateral. Let $P$, $Q$, $R$ be the feet of the perpendiculars from $D$ to the lines $BC$, $CA$, $AB$, respectively. Show that $PQ=QR$ if and only if the bisectors of $\angle ABC$ and $\angle ADC$ are concurrent with $AC$.
106 replies
iandrei
Jul 14, 2003
alexanderchew
3 hours ago
interesting diophantiic fe in natural numbers
skellyrah   0
3 hours ago
Find all functions \( f : \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} \) such that for all \( m, n \in \mathbb{N} \),
\[
mn + f(n!) = f(f(n))! + n \cdot \gcd(f(m), m!).
\]
0 replies
skellyrah
3 hours ago
0 replies
have you done DCX-Russian?
GoodMorning   83
N 3 hours ago by ray66
Source: 2023 USAJMO Problem 3
Consider an $n$-by-$n$ board of unit squares for some odd positive integer $n$. We say that a collection $C$ of identical dominoes is a maximal grid-aligned configuration on the board if $C$ consists of $(n^2-1)/2$ dominoes where each domino covers exactly two neighboring squares and the dominoes don't overlap: $C$ then covers all but one square on the board. We are allowed to slide (but not rotate) a domino on the board to cover the uncovered square, resulting in a new maximal grid-aligned configuration with another square uncovered. Let $k(C)$ be the number of distinct maximal grid-aligned configurations obtainable from $C$ by repeatedly sliding dominoes. Find the maximum value of $k(C)$ as a function of $n$.

Proposed by Holden Mui
83 replies
GoodMorning
Mar 23, 2023
ray66
3 hours ago
Titu Factoring Troll
GoodMorning   77
N 4 hours ago by ray66
Source: 2023 USAJMO Problem 1
Find all triples of positive integers $(x,y,z)$ that satisfy the equation
$$2(x+y+z+2xyz)^2=(2xy+2yz+2zx+1)^2+2023.$$
77 replies
GoodMorning
Mar 23, 2023
ray66
4 hours ago
Need help with combi problems
JARP091   4
N Today at 4:19 AM by JARP091
I want to create a problem set of some of the hardest combi problems that are yet to appear in any contest. Can anyone help me out? Also can anyone give me some tips to create combi problems.
4 replies
JARP091
Yesterday at 5:43 PM
JARP091
Today at 4:19 AM
Essentially, how to get good at olympiad math?
gulab_jamun   12
N Today at 4:08 AM by sagayao
Ok, so I'm posting this as an anynonymous user cuz I don't want to get flamed by anyone I know for my goals but I really do want to improve on my math skill.

Basically, I'm alright at computational math (10 AIME, dhr stanford math meet twice) and I hope I can get good enough at olympiad math over the summer to make MOP next year (I will be entering 10th as after next year, it becomes much harder :( )) Essentially, I just want to get good at olympiad math. If someone could, please tell me how to study, like what books (currently thinking of doing EGMO) but I don't know how to get better at the other topics. Also, how would I prepare? Like would I study both proof geometry and proof number theory concurrently or just study each topic one by one?? Would I do mock jmo/amo or js prioritize olympiad problems in each topic. I have the whole summer ahead of me, and intend to dedicate it to olympiad math, so any advice would be really appreciated. Thank you!
12 replies
gulab_jamun
May 18, 2025
sagayao
Today at 4:08 AM
Intro/intermediate books in terms of importance
Aaron_Q   6
N Apr 9, 2025 by Aaron_Q
Hey everyone,
what are your opinions on the most critical (NEED to learn) intro/intermediate books?
i might be cooked
6 replies
Aaron_Q
Apr 8, 2025
Aaron_Q
Apr 9, 2025
Intro/intermediate books in terms of importance
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Aaron_Q
29 posts
#1 • 1 Y
Y by PikaPika999
Hey everyone,
what are your opinions on the most critical (NEED to learn) intro/intermediate books?
i might be cooked
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LawofCosine
846 posts
#2 • 1 Y
Y by PikaPika999
for indermediate series, precalculus, Intermediate algebra, and intermediate counting & probability are very helpful. i'm not sure about intro series
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by LawofCosine, Apr 8, 2025, 11:50 PM
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Andyluo
994 posts
#3 • 1 Y
Y by Aaron_Q
Realistically you don't "need" the books, but they can be a big help.

These are all my opinions btw

I suggest taking "Do I need this?" tests for all of these.

Intro to Algebra- Skippable
You probably won't gain much from this book if you have above a 95% in Algebra 1. However, the distance/rate/time sections are hard to find anywhere else

Intro to Combo- Suggested
there are many concepts in this book that are very miscellaneous are things you won't find, emphasis on choose function and basic counting techniques

Intro to Geometry- Suggested
many chapters are "obvious" if you've taken geometry at school, but many chapters have nice concepts/techniques, especially the challenge sections

Intro to Number Theory- Skip
This book is essentially a waste of time and is an incredibly slow book. Would only recommend if you're struggling in number theory since it is so comprehensive.


Intermediate Algebra- Strongly Recommended
This book has many many concepts that appear in competitions, and I would absolutely do this book. It has a fair share of concepts that you can't find easily and gives you a strong set of problem-solving techniques.

Intermediate Combo- Suggested
Haven't finished, but many of the chapters introduce obscure ideas that are hard to find anywhere else. e.g fibonacci/Lucas numbers, recursion, states, difficult pie problems
This post has been edited 4 times. Last edited by Andyluo, Apr 9, 2025, 1:12 AM
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MathCosine
169 posts
#4
Y by
Honestly if you can get 8-12 AIME problems just do OTIS. It’s great.

(Also AoPS counting books are very very very good, I learned a lot from them)
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xHypotenuse
787 posts
#5
Y by
Ok so

If you're going for aime qual only
Intro Alg - suggested
Intro Geo - suggested
Intro Combo - suggested
Intro NT - skip

Int Alg - suggested
all the other int books are not that necessary


Now if you are going for a high score on aime, I also suggest doing intro NT, HIGHLY suggest doing Int alg and also suggest doing Int Combo
other than that you should just primarily grind past sets
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gauss202
4859 posts
#6
Y by
Aaron_Q wrote:
Hey everyone,
what are your opinions on the most critical (NEED to learn) intro/intermediate books?
i might be cooked

Importance for what end? AIME qualification? Preparation for calculus and science? Brain development and critical thinking?
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Aaron_Q
29 posts
#7
Y by
gauss202 wrote:
Aaron_Q wrote:
Hey everyone,
what are your opinions on the most critical (NEED to learn) intro/intermediate books?
i might be cooked

Importance for what end? AIME qualification? Preparation for calculus and science? Brain development and critical thinking?

mb, I wasn't very clear when I wrote this post
I've already aime qualled and am locking in for jmo next year :D
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