Problem

Source: Canada RepĂȘchage 2016/3

Tags: combinatorics, counting



Given an $n \times n \times n$ grid of unit cubes, a cube is good if it is a sub-cube of the grid and has side length at least two. If a good cube contains another good cube and their faces do not intersect, the first good cube is said to properly contain the second. What is the size of the largest possible set of good cubes such that no cube in the set properly contains another cube in the set?