Joy has a square board of size $n \times n$. At every step, he colours a cell of the board. He cannot colour any cell more than once. He also counts points while colouring the cells. At first, he has $0$ points. Every step, after colouring a cell $c$, he takes the largest possible set $S$ that creates a "$+$" sign where all cells are coloured and $c$ lies in the centre. Then, he gets the size of set $S$ as points. After colouring the whole $n \times n$ board, what is the maximum possible amount of points he can get?
Problem
Source: BdMO 2023 Secondary National P10 Higher Secondary National P8
Tags: combinatorics, grid