2024 AIME II Problem 2
Attempt Problem 2 of the 2024 AIME II below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2024 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.
All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
2.
A list of positive integers has the following properties:
• The sum of the items in the list is
• The unique mode of the list is
• The median of the list is a positive integer that does not appear in the list itself.
Find the sum of the squares of all the items in the list.
Answer: 236
Solution:
The median is an integer that is not in the list, so the list cannot have odd length (then the median would be a member). The unique mode appears at least twice. Two items sum to not so try four items together with where and are distinct (a repeat would tie the mode) and The median must be an integer, so is odd, and forces Thus and the list has median which indeed does not appear.
No longer list works. With exactly two s, six items would need four distinct other values summing to namely or but both give median eight or more items are impossible because six distinct positive values already sum to at least With three s the remaining items sum to and every option either puts at the median or ties the mode. Four s already sum to more than
The sum of squares is
Problem 2 in Other Years
1997 AIME · 1998 AIME · 1999 AIME · 2000 AIME I · 2000 AIME II · 2001 AIME I · 2001 AIME II · 2002 AIME I · 2002 AIME II · 2003 AIME I · 2003 AIME II · 2004 AIME I · 2004 AIME II · 2005 AIME I · 2005 AIME II · 2006 AIME I · 2006 AIME II · 2007 AIME I · 2007 AIME II · 2008 AIME I · 2008 AIME II · 2009 AIME I · 2009 AIME II · 2010 AIME I · 2010 AIME II · 2011 AIME I · 2011 AIME II · 2012 AIME I · 2012 AIME II · 2013 AIME I · 2013 AIME II · 2014 AIME I · 2014 AIME II · 2015 AIME I · 2015 AIME II · 2016 AIME I · 2016 AIME II · 2017 AIME I · 2017 AIME II · 2018 AIME I · 2018 AIME II · 2019 AIME I · 2019 AIME II · 2020 AIME I · 2020 AIME II · 2021 AIME I · 2021 AIME II · 2022 AIME I · 2022 AIME II · 2023 AIME I · 2023 AIME II · 2024 AIME I · 2025 AIME I · 2025 AIME II · 2026 AIME I · 2026 AIME II