2026 AIME I Problem 15
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 15 of the 2026 AIME I, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2026 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.
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Difficulty rating: 3700
15.
Let and be positive integers with both and greater than or equal to and less than or equal to Define an cell loop in a grid of cells to be the cells that surround an (possibly empty) rectangle of cells in the grid. For example, the following diagram shows a way to partition a grid of cells into cell loops.
Find the number of ways to partition a grid of cells into cell loops so that every cell of the grid belongs to exactly one cell loop.
Solution:
Since the five loops cover cells, Every loop has an even number of cells, so no odd-by-odd rectangle can be exactly filled by loops; and filling a rectangle whose shortest even side is requires at least loops, since peeling off an outermost loop shrinks that side by exactly while splitting a rectangle into smaller ones only adds up such requirements. Now consider the outermost loops of a partition (those whose rectangles lie inside no other loop's rectangle): their rectangles tile the square. If outermost rectangle has shortest even side it uses loops and covers at most cells. Summing over the tiling, so equality holds throughout: each spans the full in one direction, has even width and is filled with exactly loops. Two full-length slabs in different directions would overlap, so the outermost rectangles are the whole square or parallel slabs, and the same equality argument repeats inside every loop's inner rectangle.
Let be the number of ways to fill a full-height slab of even width with loops. A width- slab is a single loop: A width- slab is a loop around an loop: A width- slab is a loop around an region holding two loops — either nested ( around ) or two slabs — so A width- slab surrounds an region holding three loops: an loop around a region with two loops ( ways as before), or full-height strips of widths ( way), or widths in two orders ( ways), so The same recursion counts the full square: a loop around an region with four loops, where the and regions admit then then fillings (single nested loop, vertical strips, or horizontal strips at each stage).
Finally, tally the outermost structures. The single rectangle gives partitions. For parallel slabs, the widths form a composition of into even parts with at least two parts, and orientations (vertical or horizontal) double the count: gives in orders gives in orders gives in orders gives in orders gives and in orders gives for per orientation. The total is
Problem 15 in Other Years
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