HMMT February

The complex roots of the polynomial must come in pairs, $c_{i}$ and $\overline{c_{i}}$, both of which have the same absolute value. If $n$ is the number of distinct absolute values $\left|c_{i}\right|$ corresponding to those of non-real roots, then there are at least $2 n$ non-real roots of $f(x)$. Thus $f(x)$ can have at most $2006-2 n$ real roots. However, it must have at least $1006-n$ real roots, as $\left|c_{i}\right|$ takes on $1006-n$ more values. By definition of $n$, these all correspond to real roots. Therefore $1006-n \leq \#$ real roots $\leq 2006-2 n$, so $n \leq 1000$, and # real roots $\geq 1006-n \geq 6$. It is easy to see that equality is attainable.