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13 votes
4 answers
2k views

Can you color the 8x8 grid red and blue?

Consider an 8x8 grid made up of 64 unit squares. The goal is to color the 64 squares red or blue so that the following two constraints are satisfied: ROWS: For every pair of adjacent rows, exactly ...
Will.Octagon.Gibson's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
441 views

Pawns and a chessboard with no three aligned

This little problem crossed my mind and appeared to be not quite trivial. How can you place P pawns on a chessboard with the constraint that no pawn is exactly midway between two other pawns? Sure ...
Florian F's user avatar
  • 30.6k
18 votes
7 answers
1k views

Efficient Mowing at PSE

Your task: Find the most efficient mowing path around the dark green bushes that mows (passes over) all of the grass (light green). For those who cannot view the image above, there are 9 rows of 16, ...
JLee's user avatar
  • 19.4k
10 votes
2 answers
578 views

Permutations of first 10 natural numbers such that all the prefix sums are distinct

I posted this question on Math SE as well. Did not receive any help. This is a question that I was asked in a Quant Interview. I would like you all to have a crack at this. I could not find a problem ...
bigbang's user avatar
  • 201
6 votes
1 answer
608 views

Flat share share

This is a sequel to Gentrification in Chessshire. Due to the febrile state of the Chesster housing market you and your flat mates are forced to rent out half your place to another group of sharers. ...
loopy walt's user avatar
  • 21.3k
1 vote
1 answer
123 views

Self-indulgent numbers

Let's call a positive integer N self-indulgent of degree K>2 if for every positive integer k<K the following is true: More than half of the first k multiples N,2N,...,kN of N contain with ...
loopy walt's user avatar
  • 21.3k
32 votes
5 answers
5k views

How can 3 queens control the white squares?

It is well known that there is no way of arranging 4 queens on a checker board in such a way that every square is occupied or threatened. Now consider a slight variation where we only need to cover ...
Paul Panzer's user avatar
  • 10.3k
3 votes
2 answers
588 views

A Puzzle about "Codeforces Subsequences"

I'm quite intrigued by an "easy" problem in recent Codeforces contest: Codeforces Subsequences. In this problem, you have to create a string $T$ as shortest as possible such that $S = $ &...
athin's user avatar
  • 34.3k
9 votes
1 answer
580 views

Connect the wires without setting off the bomb

You just saw a planted time bomb! Just 5 minutes are remaining until it explodes and as you are in currently in a rural area (no bomb disposal squad) and you know how bombs usually work it is up to ...
user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
277 views

Chess Construction Challenge #1-Read First Please!

I'm starting a new series in which I set a very specific goal with a unique (to be more specifically defined here in a bit) answer in which the solver must construct a chess position, sometimes a game,...
Rewan Demontay's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
652 views

Missing checkmates in one

Have you ever missed a one-move checkmate and immediately realized it after making your move? If you have, you just might have what it takes to crack this problem. Let's take an example: g4 e5 ...
Jafe's user avatar
  • 78.6k