2026 AIME I Problem 9
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 9 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: 2840
9.
Joanne has a blank fair six-sided die and six stickers each displaying a different integer from to Joanne rolls the die and then places the sticker labeled on the top face of the die. She then rolls the die again, places the sticker labeled on the top face, and continues this process to place the rest of the stickers in order. If the die ever lands with a sticker already on its top face, the new sticker is placed to cover the old sticker. Let be the conditional probability that at the end of the process exactly one face has been left blank, given that all the even-numbered stickers are visible on faces of the die. Then can be written as where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find
Solution:
Let be the top faces rolled, independent and uniform over the six faces. Sticker goes on face and ends up visible exactly when for all (sticker is always visible). So the conditioning event is and Counting choices in the order gives sequences out of
A face is blank exactly when it never appears among so exactly one blank face means the sequence takes exactly distinct values, i.e. there is exactly one coincidence with and all other values distinct. The coincidence must not violate the conditioning: pairs and are forbidden, leaving the pairs For each allowed pair, the five distinct values can be assigned in ways, and every constraint holds automatically because the only repeated value occupies an allowed pair. That gives sequences.
Therefore and
Problem 9 in Other Years
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