2026 AIME II Problem 11
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 11 of the 2026 AIME II, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2026 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.
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Difficulty rating: 3060
11.
Find the greatest integer such that the cubic polynomial has roots and where and are complex numbers, and there are exactly seven different possible values for
Solution:
The roots of the cubic are Fix square roots of them; then ranges over the eight expressions which come in four pairs Generically all eight are distinct. A coincidence between choices that are not opposite forces for some which collapses the eight values to at most six. So exactly seven values occur precisely when one choice satisfies — its opposite is then the same value — and no further degeneracies occur.
That condition is the vanishing of where are the roots and their elementary symmetric functions. By Vieta's formulas and so i.e. with roots and
For the cubic's roots are distinct and nonzero (the constant term is ), so the only coincidence is the value and exactly seven sums occur. The greatest such integer is
Problem 11 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 · 2024 AIME II · 2025 AIME I · 2025 AIME II · 2026 AIME I