HMMT November 2023
November 11, 2023
General Round
1. Four people are playing rock-paper-scissors. They each play one of the three options (rock, paper, or
scissors) independently at random, with equal probability of each choice. Compute the probability
that someone beats everyone else.
(In rock-paper-scissors, a player that plays rock beats a player that plays scissors, a player that plays
paper beats a player that plays rock, and a player that plays scissors beats a player that plays paper.)
2. A regular n-gon P1 P2 . . . Pn satisfies ∠P1 P7 P8 = 178◦ . Compute n.
3. Compute the number of positive four-digit multiples of 11 whose sum of digits (in base ten) is divisible
by 11.
4. Suppose that a and b are real numbers such that the line y = ax + b intersects the graph of y = x2 at
two distinct points A and B. If the coordinates of the midpoint of AB are (5, 101), compute a + b.
5. On an 8 × 8 chessboard, 6 black rooks and k white rooks are placed on different cells so that each rook
only attacks rooks of the opposite color. Compute the maximum possible value of k.
(Two rooks attack each other if they are in the same row or column and no rooks are between them.)
6. Let ABCD be a square of side length 5. A circle passing through A is tangent to segment CD at T
and meets AB and AD again at X ̸= A and Y ̸= A, respectively. Given that XY = 6, compute AT .
7. Compute all ordered triples (x, y, z) of real numbers satisfying the following system of equations:
xy + z = 40
xz + y = 51
x + y + z = 19.
√
8. Mark writes the expression d for each positive divisor d of 8! on the board. Seeing that these √
expressions might not be worth points on HMMT, Rishabh simplifies each expression to the form a b,
where
√ √a and b are
√ integers such √
that b√is not divisible
√ by the square of a prime number. (For example,
20, 16, and 6 simplify to 2 5, 4 1, and 1 6, respectively.) Compute the sum of a + b across all
expressions that Rishabh writes.
9. An entry in a grid is called a saddle point if it is the largest number in its row and the smallest
number in its column. Suppose that each cell in a 3 × 3 grid is filled with a real number, each chosen
independently and uniformly at random from the interval [0, 1]. Compute the probability that this
grid has at least one saddle point.
10. Let ABCD be a convex trapezoid such that ∠ABC = ∠BCD = 90◦ , AB = 3, BC = 6, and CD = 12.
Among all points X inside the trapezoid satisfying ∠XBC = ∠XDA, compute the minimum possible
value of CX.