IMO 2023 A5 #
Let $N > 0$ and $(a_0, a_1, …, a_N)$ be a permutation of $(0, 1, …, N)$. Suppose that $(|a_0 - a_1|, …, |a_{N - 1} - a_N|)$ is a permutation of $(1, 2, …, N)$. Prove that $\max\{a_0, a_N\} ≥ \lfloor (N + 1)/4 \rfloor + 1$.
Extra notes #
The lower bound is known to be sharp when $N \equiv 2 \pmod{4}$. We won't implement this at least until later when we figure out the other cases.