# There are several questions here which are basically from a current ($2021$-$2022$ round $1$) USAMTS math contest

The year $$33$$ online USAMTS $$2021$$-$$2021$$ round $$1$$ contest has a submit by date of October $$18$$, $$2021$$. However, although users are not allowed to ask questions online about it, there are $$2$$ questions related to it from one user, here (currently deleted by the OP) and here. There's also this one that was just recently posted, with it being basically the same as the first listed one by the other user.

Please keep in mind this contest's questions, and try to avoid answering any posted questions that are basically the same, at least until after Oct. $$18$$.

• Are the question present in usamts.org/Tests/Problems_33_1.pdf only cominh in USAMTS because I can't find the second question you linked in the pdf with a quick Ctrl + F
– user876009
Sep 13, 2021 at 2:06
• @JitendraSingh I assume "cominh" is meant to be "coming". As for the second question I linked to, the comment there from Snacc states it is "very related to a problem 2" (which is labeled as "2/1/33"). Note the questions asked here have been changed somewhat, I guess mainly to help avoid anyone finding they come from that contest. Sep 13, 2021 at 2:13
• Thanks for bringing this to our notice! This is an annual problem. A list of related past threads. I will use my voting powers somewhat harshly when protecting the integrity of contests like USAMTS. Sep 13, 2021 at 3:23
• @JyrkiLahtonen You're welcome. You may wish to also thank Snacc in a comment since, without their comments, I wouldn't have known that the first $2$ questions, (as well as my answer to the first one, and the third question due to how similar it is to that first one) were from that contest. Also, FYI, since I don't know how long it might take for Stefan Albrecht to delete their answer to the second linked question, or for a moderator to do it for that answer or the entire post, I've voted to delete the answer to help "hide" it from most people more quickly. Sep 13, 2021 at 3:34
• Thank you for the heads up. We do have a policy on Math SE of locking contest problems and temporarily deleting any answers. Please raise flags when you see such questions (with a link to the competition page (or to this thread) in the flag). I'll try to keep an eye out for such flags.
– Xander Henderson Mod
Sep 13, 2021 at 12:46
• here is another post taken from this source.
– lulu
Sep 14, 2021 at 15:37
• I think I've caught another one which was unfortunately answered as well. We have to ask for sources for contest questions : preferably sources which are net-accessible. I'm not happy with this happening, particularly a fairly reputed user engaging in these shenanigans. Sep 15, 2021 at 11:45
• @TeresaLisbon I'm the user who answered that question. I'd like to prevent it from happening again, so if you don't mind me asking, how does one see a question is a contest question? Is is because the question itself is a formatted as a quotation? Sep 15, 2021 at 13:16
• @Mastrem It's bad luck, don't worry. Of course the "contest-math" tag is applicable , but my take on it is this : search for the question using either Approach0 or SearchOnMath first to confirm that it's not a duplicate, and then search for "keywords" of the question on Google or something. If you can't find anything that convinces you that the question can be answered nicely, then please ask for the source of the question. If you don't get a reply, then abstain from answering. I think we can only do so much, so I sympathise with you. Having a verifiable source for contest questions is a must Sep 15, 2021 at 13:19
• In this case, I'd read the meta post here so I recognized the question immediately. That's why I sort of jumped into the question so quickly : I also know users who post contest questions often so I keep looking out for their questions, and find out which questions have a source isn't clearly given. When I spot a problematic question, I report it and we come full circle. Sep 15, 2021 at 13:21
• @TeresaLisbon Well at least I found out about two cool math search engines I didn't know about before :) Sep 15, 2021 at 13:21
• @Mastrem Those engines will save about 75% of your time on this site for searching out questions. You can use it to spot duplicates well. Sep 15, 2021 at 13:23
• @Mastrem I'm sorry, I should have realized. The shenanigans I referred to , in my first comment, were directed at the OP of that question who has about 12.3K rep, and not you, so I hope you were not offended by this. Whatever, the OP there should have known far better, and ,in my opinion should face some action. Sep 15, 2021 at 17:49
• @TeresaLisbon Oh, I got that and wasn't offended, don't worry about it. Just somewhat annoyed the OP of that question made me waste my time and effort, which might've unconsciously influenced the tone of my original comment. Sep 15, 2021 at 18:03
• For anybody interested, How to prove that there exists any non negative integral solution to this equation is one more try to get an answer for question #$4$ of the contest, as also tried in my first & third linked posts in my question here. Sep 19, 2021 at 5:41