Problem

Source: Chinese MO 1999

Tags: geometry, 3D geometry, combinatorics proposed, combinatorics



A $4\times4\times4$ cube is composed of $64$ unit cubes. The faces of $16$ unit cubes are to be coloured red. A colouring is called interesting if there is exactly $1$ red unit cube in every $1\times1\times 4$ rectangular box composed of $4$ unit cubes. Determine the number of interesting colourings.