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Number Theory Previous Year Questions

1. A number N in base 10, is 503 in base b and 305 in base b + 2. What is the product of the digits of N?
[IOQM 2020-21]
2. Find the number of integer solutions to ||x| – 2020| < 5. [IOQM 2020-21]
3. What is the least positive integer by which 25 · 36 · 43 · 53 · 67 should be multiplied so that, the product is a
perfect square? [IOQM 2020-21]
4. A 5-digit number (in base 10) has digits k, k + 1, k + 2, 3k, k + 3 in that order, from left to right. If this
number is m2 for some natural number m. Find the sum of the digits of m. [IOQM 2020-21]
5. Find the sum of all positive integers n for which |2n + 5n –65| is a perfect square. [IOQM 2020-21]
6. The product 55 × 60 × 65 is written as the product of five distinct positive integers. What is the least possible
value of the largest of these integers? [IOQM 2020-21]
7. How many two digit numbers have exactly 4 positive factors? (Here 1 and the number n are also considered
as factors of n.) [IOQM 2020-21]
8. For a positive integer n, let n denote the perfect square integer closest to n. For example,

74  81, 18  16 . If N is the smallest positive integer such that 81 · 12 · 143 · 180 · N  91.120.143.180.N

find the sum of the squares of the digits of N. [IOQM 2020-21]

9. A natural number n is said to be good if n is the sum of r consecutive positive integers, for some r  2. Find
the number of good numbers in the set {1, 2, ..., 100). [IOQM 2020-21]
ab
10. Positive integers a, b, c satisfy  c . What is the largest possible value of a + b + c not exceeding
ab
99? [IOQM 2020-21]
11. Find the number of pairs (a, b) of natural numbers such that b is a 3-digit number, a + 1 divides b – 1 and b
divides a2 + a + 2. [IOQM 2020-21]
12. For any real number t, let [t] denote the largest integer  t. Suppose that N is the greatest integer such that
  
   N     4 . Find the sum of digits of N. [IOQM 2021-22]
  

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Number Theory Previous Year Que.

13. Let m be the smallest positive integer such that m2 + (m + 1)2 + … + (m + 10)2 is the square of a positive
integer n. Find m + n. [IOQM 2022-23]
14. Let a, b be positive integers satisfying a3 – b3 – ab = 25. Find the largest possible value of a2 + b3.
[IOQM 2022-23]
15. Find the number of ordered pairs (a, b) such that a, b  {10, 11, …, 29, 30} and GCD(a, b) + LCM(a, b) = a + b.
[IOQM 2022-23]
q m
16. Suppose the prime numbers p and q satisfy q2 + 3p = 197p2 + q. Write as l  , where l, m, n are positive
p n
integers, m < n and GCD(m, n) = 1. Find the maximum value of l + m + n. [IOQM 2022-23]
17. For a positive integer n > 1, let g(n) denote the largest positive proper divisor of n and f(n) = n – g(n). For
example, g(10) = 5, f(10) = 5 and g(13) = 1, f(13) = 12. Let N be the smallest positive integer such that f(f(f(N)))

= 97. Find the largest integer not exceeding N. [IOQM 2022-23]

18. Let m, n be natural numbers such that

m + 3n – 5 = 5LCM(m, n) – 11GCD(m, n).

Find the maximum possible value of m + n. [IOQM 2022-23]

19. Let n be a positive integer such that 1  n  1000 . Let Mn be the number of integers in the set

X n   4n  1, 4n  2, ....., 4n  1000 . Let a  max{Mn : 1  n  1000} and b  min{Mn : 1  n  1000} .

Find a – b. [IOQM 2023-24]
16  7
20. Let  and be positive integers such that   . Find the smallest possible value of .
37  16
[IOQM 2023-24]
21. Let x, y be positive integers such that x  ( x  1)(y  23)  1. Find the maximum possible value of x + y.
4 3

[IOQM 2023-24]
22. Let X be the set of all even positive integers n such that the measure of the angle of some regular polygon is
n degrees. Find the number of elements in X. [IOQM 2023-24]
23. Find the number of triples (a, b, c) of positive integers such that [IOQM 2023-24]
(a) ab is a prime;
(b) bc is a product of two primes;
(c) abc is not divisible by square of any prime and

(d) abc  30.

24. A positive integer m has the property that m2 is expressible in the form 4n2 – 5n + 16 where n is an integer
(of any sign). Find the maximum possible value of |m – n|. [IOQM 2023-24]

25. For n  , let P(n) denote the product of the digits in n and S(n) denote the sum of the digits in n. Consider
the set A = {n  : P(n) is non-zero, square free and S(n) is a proper divisor of P(n)}. Find the maximum
possible number of digits of the numbers in A. [IOQM 2023-24]

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Number Theory Previous Year Que.

26. A positive integer n > 1 is called beautiful if n can be written in one and only one way as n = a1 + a2 + … + ak
= a1  a2 … ak for some positive integers a1, a2, …., ak, where k > 1 and a1  a2  ….  ak. (For example 6 is
beautiful since 6 = 3  2  1 = 3 + 2 + 1; and this is unique. But 8 is not beautiful since 8 = 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 4  2
 1  1 as well as 8 = 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 2 2  2  1  1, so uniqueness is lost.) Find the largest beautiful number
less than 100. [IOQM 2023-24]
27. Let d(m) denote the number of positive integer divisors of a positive integer m. If r is the number of integers

 d  i  is odd, find the sum of the digits of r.

n
n  2023 for which [IOQM 2023-24]
i 1

28. The smallest positive integer that does not divide 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 × 5 × 6 × 7 × 8 × 9 is [IOQM 2024-25]
29. The number obtained by taking the last two digits of 52024 in the same order is: [IOQM 2024-25]
30. Let n be the smallest integer such that the sum of digits of n is divisible by 5 as sell as the sum of digits of
(n + 1) is divisible by 5. What are the first two digits of n in the same order? [IOQM 2024-25]
31. Three positive integers a, b, c with a > c satisfy the following equations:
ac + b + c = bc + a + 66, a + b + c = 32. Find the value of a. [IOQM 2024-25]
32. Let p, q be two-digit numbers neither of which are divisible by 10. Let r be the four-digit number by putting the
digits of p followed by the digits of q (in order). As p, q vary, a computer prints r on the screen if gcd(p, q) = 1
and p + q divides r. Suppose that the largest number that is printed by the computer is N. Determine the
number formed by the last two digits of N (in the same order). [IOQM 2024-25]
n   n  172 
33. An integer n is such that   is a three digit number with equal digits, and   is a 4 digit number with
 
9  4 
the digits 2, 0, 2, 4 in some order. What is the remainder when n is divided by 100? [IOQM 2024-25]
34. Consider the fourteen numbers, 14, 24, ….,144. The smallest natural number n such that they leave distinct
remainders when divided by n is: [IOQM 2024-25]
35. A finite set M of positive integers consists of distinct perfect squares and the number 92. The average of the
numbers in M is 85. If we remove 92 from M, the average drops to 84. If N2 is the largest possible square in
M, what is the value of N? [IOQM 2024-25]

36. Find the largest positive integer n < 30 such that

2

1 8

n  3n 4  4 is not divisible by the square of any prime

number. [IOQM 2024-25]

 

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