Problem

Source: ELMO 2014 Shortlist A5, by Ryan Alweiss

Tags: function, algebra proposed, algebra



Let $\mathbb R^\ast$ denote the set of nonzero reals. Find all functions $f: \mathbb R^\ast \to \mathbb R^\ast$ satisfying \[ f(x^2+y)+1=f(x^2+1)+\frac{f(xy)}{f(x)} \] for all $x,y \in \mathbb R^\ast$ with $x^2+y\neq 0$. Proposed by Ryan Alweiss