PreRMO past Number Theory Questions

December 21, 2021

1 Divisibility
1. (PreRMO 2012) Let P (n) = (n + 1) (n + 3) (n + 5) (n + 7) (n + 9) What
is the largest integer that is a divisor of P (n) for all positive even positive
even integers n ?

2. (PreRMO 2013) What is the maximum possible value of k for which 2013
can be written as a sum of k consecutive positive integers?
3. (PreRMO 2014) For a natural number b, let N (b) denote the number of
natural numbers a for which the equation x2 + ax + b = 0 has integer
roots. What is the smallest value of b for which N (b) = 6?

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 4. (PreRMO 2014) For how many natural numbers n between 1 and 2014
8n
(both inclusive) is 9999−n an integer?
4 2 8
5. (PreRMO 2014) If x(x )
= 4, what is the value of x(x ) + x(x ) ?
6. (PreRMO 2015)How many two-digit positive integers N have the property
that the sum of N and the number obtained by reversing the order of the
digits of N is a perfect square?
7. (PreRMO 2017) A pen costs Rs. 11 and a notebook costs Rs. 13. Find
the number of ways in which a person can spend exactly Rs. 1000 to buy
pens and notebooks.

8. (PreRMO 2017)How many positive integers less than 1000 have the prop-
erty that the sum of the digits of each such number is divisible by 7 and
the number itself is divisible by 3?
9. Consider all 6-digit numbers of the form abccba where b is odd. Determine
the number of all such 6-digit numbers that are divisible by 7.

10. (PreRMO 2019 P1) How many positive integers n are there such that
n
3 ≤ n ≤ 100 and x2 + x + 1 is divisible by x2 + x + 1?
11. (PreRMO 2019 P1)Let the rational number p/q be closest to but not equal
to 22/7 among all rational numbers with denominator < 100. What is the
value of p − 3q?

12. (PreRMO 2019 P2)Let a, b, c be distinct positive integers such that b+c−a,
c + a − b and a + b − c are all perfect squares. What is the largest possible
value of a + b + c smaller than 100 ?

13. (PreRMO 2020 /30) Find the number of pairs (a, b) of natural numbers
such that b is a 3 -digit number, a +1 divides b − 1 and b divides a2 + a + 2

Answers
1) 15 2)61 3)60 4) 1 5) 258 6) 8 6) 7 7) 7 8)
28 9) 70 10) 49 11) 14 12)91 13) 16

2 Modular arithmetic
1. (PreRMO 2013) To each element of the set S = {1, 2, ..., 1000} a colour
is assigned. Suppose that for any two elements a, b of S, if 15 divides
a + b then they are both assigned the same colour. What is the maximum
possible number of distinct colours used?

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 2. (PreRMO 2014) One morning, each member of Manjul’s family drank an
8-ounce mixture of coffee and milk. The amounts of coffee and milk varied
from cup to cup, but were never zero. Manjul drank 1/7-th of the total
amount of milk and 2/17-th of the total amount of coffee. How many
people are there in Manjul’s family?

3. (PreRMO 2018) Let a and b natural numbers such that 2a–b, a–2b and
a + b are all distinct squares. What is the smallest possible value of b ?
4. (PreRMO 2018) If a, b, c ≥ 4 are integers, not all equal, and 4abc =
(a + 3)(b + 3)(c + 3),then what is the value of a + b + c?

5. (PreRMO 2019 P1)A pen costs Rs. 13 and a note book costs Rs. 17. A
school spends exactly Rs. 10000 in the year 2017 − 18 to buy x pens and
y note books such that x and y are as close as possible (i.e., |x − y| is
minimum). Next year, in 2018 − 19, the school spends a little more than
Rs. 10000 and buys y pens and x note books. How much more did the
school pay?

6. (PreRMO 2019 P1)Let E denote the set of all natural numbers n such
that 3 < n < 100 and the set {1, 2, 3, . . . , n} can be partitioned in to 3
subsets with equal sums. Find the number of elements of E.
7. Answers
1) 8 2) 8 3) 21 4) 16 5) 40 6) 64

3 Sum of digits, product of digits, number of di-

visors
1. (PreRMO 2013) Let S(M ) denote the sum of the digits of a positive integer
M written in base 10. Let N be the smallest positive integer such that
S(N ) = 2013. What is the value of S(5N + 2013)?

2. (PreRMO 2015) Let E(n) denote the sum of the even digits of n. For
example, E(1243) = 2 + 4 = 6. What is the value of E(1) + E(2) + E(3) +
· · · + E(100)?
3. (PreRMO 2017) How many positive integers less than 1000 have the prop-
erty that the sum of the digits of each such number is divisible by 7 and
the number itself is divisible by 3?
4. (PreRMO 2018) Determine the sum of all possible positive integers n, the
product of whose digits equals n2 –15n–27.
5. (PreRMO 2019 P2) Let N be the smallest positive integer such that N +
2N + 3N + . . . . + 9N is a number all whose digits are equal. What is the
sum of the digits of N ?

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 6. (PreRMO 2019 P2) Let s(n) denote the sum of the digits of a positive
integer n in base 10. If s(m) = 20 and s(33m) = 120, what is the value of
s(3m)?
Answers
1) 18 2)60 3) 400 4) 28 5) 37 6) 60

4 GCD-LCM
1. (PreRMO 2014) For natural numbers x and y, let (x, y) denote the greatest
common divisor of x and y. How many pairs of natural numbers x and y
with x ≤ y satisfy the equation xy = x + y + (x, y)?

2. (PreRMO 2018) Let T be the smallest positive integers which, when di-
vided by 11, 13, 15 leaves remainders in the sets {7, 8, 9} , {1, 2, 3} , {4, 5, 6}
respectively. What is the sum of the square of the digits of T ?
3. (PreRMO 2019 P1)Find the number of ordered triples (a, b) of positive
integers with a < b and 100 ≤ a, b ≤ 1000 satisfy gcd(a, b) : lcm(a, b) = 1 :
495?
ab
4. (PreRMO 2020 /29) Positive integers a, b, c satisfy a−b = c. What is the
largest possible value of a + b + c not exceeding 99?
5. Answers
1)3 2) 81 3)20 4)99

5 Rationalization
1 √ √
1. (PreRMO 2012) If √ √ = m− n , where m and n are
2011+ 20112 −1
positive integers , what is the value of m + n?
n 99
1 √ 1
P P
2. (PreRMO 2013)Let Sn = √
k+1+ k
. What is the value of Sn +Sn−1 ?
k=0 n=1
Answers
1) 2011 2) 9

6 Inequalities
√
(PreRMO 2017) Find the number of positive integers n such that
1. √ n+
n + 1 < 11
Answers
1) 29

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7 Sequences and Progressions AM-GM
1. (PreRMO 2017) Integers 1, 2, 3 . . . , n, where n > 2 are written on a board.
Two numbers m, k such that 1 < m < n, 1 < k < n are removed and the
average of the remaining numbers is found to be 17. What is the maximum
sum of the two removed numbers?
2. (PreRMO 2017) Let u, v, w be real numbers in geometric progression such
that u > v > w. Suppose u40 = v n = w60 . Find the value of n.
9
1
P
3. (PreRMO 2017) Let the sum n(n+1)(n+2) written in its lowest terms
n=1
p
be q . Find the value of q − p.
4. (PreRMO 2017) Five distinct 2-digit numbers are in geometric progression.
Find the middle term.
5. (PreRMO 2018) Let N = 6 + 66 + 666 + ..... + 666....66, where there are
hundred 6’s in the last term in the sum. How many times does the digit
7 occur in the number N ?
6. (PreRMO 2019 P1) Let x1 be a positive real number and for every integer
n ≥ 1 let xn+1 = 1 + x1 x2 · · · xn . If x5 = 43, what is the sum of digits of
the largest prime factor of x6 ?

7. (PreRMO 2019 P1)A natural number k > 1 is called good if there exist
natural numbers
a1 < a2 < · · · < ak
such that
1 1 1
√ + √ + ··· + √ = 1
a1 a2 ak
Let f (n) be the sum of the first n good numbers, n ≥ 1. Find the sum of
all values of n for which f (n + 5)/f (n) is an integer.
8. (PreRMO 2019 P2)Let a1 = 24 and form the sequence an , n ≥ 2 by an =
100an–1 + 134. The first few terms are 24, 2534, 253534, 25353534, ....What
is the least value of n for which an is divisible by 99?
9. Consider the sequence
1, 7, 8, 49, 50, 56, 57, 343 . . .
which consists of sums of distinct powers of 7, that is, 70 , 71 , 70 +71 , 72 ,. . .
in increasing order. At what position will 16856 occur in this sequence?
PN
10. (PreRMO 2020) If k=1 (k2k+1 2 +k)2 = 0.9999 then determine the value of N.

11. Answers
1) 51 2)48 3) 83 4) 36 5) 34 6)13 7) 18 8) 88 9)
36 10) 99

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8 Primes
1. (PreRMO 2015)Let n be the largest integer that is the product of exactly
3 distinct prime numbers, x, y and 10x+y, where x and y are digits. What
is the sum of the digits of n?
2. (PreRMO 2017) Suppose an integer x a natural number n and a prime
number p satisfy the equation 7x2 − 44x + 12 = pn . Find the largest value
of p.
3. (PreRMO 2017) Let p, q be prime number such that n3pq − n is a multiple
of 3pq for all positive integers n. Find the list possible value of p + q .
4. (PreRMO 2017) For each positive integer n, consider the highest common
factor hn of the two numbers n! + 1 and (n + 1)!. For, find the largest value
of hn .
5. (PreRMO 2019 P1) Let abc be a three digit number with nonzero digits
such that a2 + b2 = c2 . What is the largest possible prime factor of abc ?

6. (PreRMO 2019 P1) Find the smallest positive integer n ≥ 10 such that
n + 6 is a prime and 9n + 7 is a perfect square.

7. (PreRMO 2019 P1) Consider the set E of all natural numbers n such that
when divided by 11, 12, 13, respectively, the remainders, int that order, are
distinct prime numbers in an arithmetic progression. If N is the largest
number in E, find the sum of digits of N .
BONUS. Actually it should have been the smallest instead of the largest
number.

8. (PreRMO 2019 P1) Consider the set E = {5, 6, 7, 8, 9}. For any partition
A, B of E, with both A and B non-empty, consider the number obtained
by adding the product of elements of A to the product of elements of B.
Let N be the largest prime number amonh these numbers. Find the sum
of the digits of N .

9. (PreRMO 2019 P2)Let N denote the √ number of all natural numbers n

such that n is divisible by a prime p > n and p < 20. What is the value
of N ?
10. (PreRMO 2019 P2)What is the smallest prime number p such that p3 +
4p2 + 4p has exactly 30 positive divisors ?

11. Answers
1) 12 2)47 3) 28 4) 97 5) 29 6)53 7)BONUS 8) 17 9)
69 10)43

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GIF
1. (PreRMO 2012) How many non-negative integral values of x satisfy the
equation
hxi hxi
= ?
5 7
Where [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x .

2. (PreRMO 2012) What is the sum of squares of roots of the equation

x2 − 7 [x] + 5 = 0?
Where [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x .
3. (PreRMO 2017)Suppose x is a positive real number such that {x} , [x]and
x are in a geometric progression. Find the least positive integer n such
that xn > 100. (Here [x] denotes the integer part of x and {x} = x − [x])
4. (PreRMO 2019 P1)What is the greatest integer not exceeding the sum
1599
P 1
√ ?
n=1 n
√
5. (PreRMO 2019 P1) Consider the sequence of numbers [n + 2n + 21 ] for
where [x] denotes the greatest integer not exceeding x. If the missing
integers in the sequence are n1 < n2 < · · ·then find n12 .
6. (PreRMO 2019 P2)For any real number x, let bxc denote the integer part
of x; {x} be the fractional part of x ({x} = x− bxc). Let A denote the
set of all real numbers x satisfying

x + bxc + bx + (1/2)c
{x} =
20
If S is the sum of all numbers in A, find bSc

1. Answers
1) 10 2)92 3) 10 4) 78 5)78 6) 21

9 Repunit
1. For n ≥ 1, let an be the number beginning with n 9’s followed by 744;
eg.,a4 = 9999744. Define

f (n) = max{m ∈ N | 2m divides an }

, for n ≥ 1. Find f (1) + f (2) + f (3) + · · · + f (10).

ans: 1) 75

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10 Number bases
1. (PreRMO 2013)What is the sum (in base 10) of all the natural numbers
less than 64 which have exactly three ones in their base 2 representation?

2. (PreRMO 2018) The equation 166x56 = 8590 is valid in some base b ≥ 10

(that is 1, 6, 5, 8, 9, 0 are digits in base b in the above equation). Find the
sum of all possible values of b ≥ 10 satisfying the equation.

3. (PreRMO 2019 P2)In base-2 notation, digits are 0 and 1 only and the
places go up in powers of −2. For example, 11011 stands for (−2)4 +
(−2)3 + (−2)1 + (−2)0 and equals number 7 in base 10. If the decimal
number 2019 is expressed in base −2 how many non-zero digits does it
contain ?

4. (preRMO 2021) A number N in base 10 , is 503 in base b and 305 in base

b + 2. What is the product of the digits of N?
Answers
1) 630 2) 12 3)6 4) 64