2018 AMC 10B Problem 14

Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 14 of the 2018 AMC 10B, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2018 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

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Concepts:mode optimization

Difficulty rating: 1660

14.

A list of $2018$ positive integers has a unique mode, which occurs exactly $10$ times. What is the least number of distinct values that can occur in the list?

$202$

$223$

$224$

$225$

$234$

Solution:

The mode shows up $10$ times. To keep the number of distinct values small, let every other value repeat as much as the rules allow, which is $9$ times each (any more would tie the mode). With $d$ distinct values the list holds at most $10 + 9(d-1)$ entries. We need $10 + 9(d-1) \ge 2018,$ so $d - 1 \ge 223.1,$ giving $d \ge 225.$ Therefore, the answer is D.

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