Grid Combo Problems
Shining Sun
March 2025
Problems
1. (2016 HMMT Team P4) Let n > 1 be an odd integer. On an n × n chessboard the center square and
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four corners are deleted. We wish to group the remaining n2 − 5 squares into n 2−5 pairs, such that
the two squares in each pair intersect at exactly one point (i.e. they are diagonally adjacent, sharing
a single corner).
For which odd integers n is this possible?
2. (2018 HMMT Team P1) In an n × n square array of 1 × 1 cells, at least one cell is colored pink.
Show that you can always divide the square into rectangles along cell borders such that each rectangle
contains exactly one pink cell.
3. (2020 HMMT Combo P3) Each unit square of a 4 × 4 square grid is colored eith red, green, or blue.
Over all possible colorings of the grid, what is the maximum possible number of L-trominos that contain
exactly one square of each color?
4. (2015 USAMO P4/USAJMO P6) Steve is piling m ≥ 1 indistinguishable stones on the squares of an
n × n grid. Each square can have an arbitrarily high pile of stones. After he finished piling his stones
in some manner, he can then perform stone moves, defined as follows. Consider any four grid squares,
which are corners of a rectangle, i.e. in positions (i, k), (i, l), (j, k), (j, l) for some 1 ≤ i, j, k, l ≤ n, such
that i < j and k < l. A stone move consists of either removing one stone from each of (i, k) and (j, l)
and moving them to (i, l) and (j, k) respectively, or removing one stone from each of (i, l) and (j, k)
and moving them to (i, k) and (j, l) respectively.
Two ways of piling the stones are equivalent if they can be obtained from one another by a sequence
of stone moves.
How many different non-equivalent ways can Steve pile the stones on the grid?
5. (2023 USAJMO P4) Two players, B and R, play the following game on an infinite grid of unit squares,
all initially colored white. The players take turns starting with B. On B’s turn, B selects one white
unit square and colors it blue. On R’s turn, R selects two white unit squares and colors them red. The
players alternate until B decides to end the game. At this point, B gets a score, given by the number
of unit squares in the largest (in terms of area) simple polygon containing only blue unit squares.
What is the largest score B can guarantee?
6. (2025 USAJMO P3) Let m and n be positive integers, and let R be a 2m × 2n grid of unit squares.
A domino is a 1 × 2 or 2 × 1 rectangle. A subset S of grid squares in R is domino-tileable if dominoes
can be placed to cover every square of S exactly once with no domino extending outside of S. Note:
The empty set is domino tileable.
An up-right path is a path from the lower-left corner of R to the upper-right corner of R formed
by exactly 2m + 2n edges of the grid squares.
Determine, with proof, in terms of m and n, the number of up-right paths that divide R into two
domino-tileable subsets.
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7. (2019 USA TSTST P3) On an infinite square grid we place finitely many cars, which each occupy a
single cell and face in one of the four cardinal directions. Cars may never occupy the same cell. It is
given that the cell immediately in front of each car is empty, and moreover no two cars face towards
each other (no right-facing car is to the left of a left-facing car within a row, etc.). In a move, one
chooses a car and shifts it one cell forward to a vacant cell. Prove that there exists an infinite sequence
of valid moves using each car infinitely many times.
8. (2024 IMO P5) Turbo the snail plays a game on a board with 2024 rows and 2023 columns. There are
hidden monsters in 2022 of the cells. Initially, Turbo does not know where any of the monsters are,
but he knows that there is exactly one monster in each row except the first row and the last row, and
that each column contains at most one monster.
Turbo makes a series of attempts to go from the first row to the last row. On each attempt, he
chooses to start on any cell in the first row, then repeatedly moves to an adjacent cell sharing a com-
mon side. (He is allowed to return to a previously visited cell.) If he reaches a cell with a monster, his
attempt ends and he is transported back to the first row to start a new attempt. The monsters do not
move, and Turbo remembers whether or not each cell he has visited contains a monster. If he reaches
any cell in the last row, his attempt ends and the game is over.
Determine the minimum value of n for which Turbo has a strategy that guarantees reaching the
last row on the nth attempt or earlier, regardless of the locations of the monsters.
