Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 4.9 AIME Find the answer

23. 32 students apply to participate in an international exchange activity, only 2 can participate, the selection method is that the 32 students stand in a line, and count from 1 from front to back, those who report odd numbers are eliminated and exit the queue, then count from 1 from front to back again. Xiao Ming very much wants to participate in this activity, to ensure that he is selected, the number he should report when lining up for the first time is or \qquad

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Reference answer: 16 or 32

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.