2018 AMC 12B Problem 22

Attempt Problem 22 of the 2018 AMC 12B 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 2018 AMC 12B solutions, or check the answer key.

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22.

Consider polynomials $P(x)$ of degree at most $3,$ each of whose coefficients is an element of $\{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9\}.$ How many such polynomials satisfy $P(-1)=-9?$

$110$

$143$

$165$

$220$

$286$

Answer: D

Concepts:stars and bars substitution

Difficulty rating: 2330

Solution:

Write $P(x)=ax^3+bx^2+cx+d$ with each of $a,b,c,d$ in $\{0,\ldots,9\}.$ The condition is $-a+b-c+d=-9.$

Let $a'=9-a$ and $c'=9-c,$ both in $[0,9].$ Then $a'+b+c'+d=9.$ By stars and bars the number of nonnegative solutions is $\binom{9+3}{3}=\binom{12}{3}=220,$ and each automatically satisfies the upper bounds since the sum is $9.$

Thus, the correct answer is D.

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