Problem

Source: 2023 KMO Final Round Problem 3

Tags: number theory, FKMO, Subset



Let $p$ be an odd prime. Let $A(n)$ be the number of subsets of $\{1,2,...,n\}$ such that the sum of elements of the subset is a multiple of $p$. Prove that if $2^{p-1}-1$ is not a multiple of $p^2$, there exists infinitely many positive integer $m$ for any integer $k$ that satisfies the following. (The sum of elements of the empty set is 0.) $$\frac{A(m)-k}{p}\in\mathbb{Z}$$