• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 00:47
CET 06:47
KST 14:47
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down21ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier7Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League99
StarCraft 2
General
No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? 5.0.17 Patch Notes - October 7, 2026 Evil Geniuses - shutting down Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book SC2 Power Rank: epic29
Tourneys
ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 RSL 2026 Offline Finals LCQ Sign-Ups
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles Mutation # 548 Shining Bright
Brood War
General
Rollback Netcode in Brood War Mathematicians needed to calc "Low Econ Epicness" Top Players of October 2026 (EBPD Rankings) BW General Discussion [Megathread] Daily Funny Videos
Tourneys
2v2v2v2 Tournament Stage 1: Community Poll [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [IPSL] IPSL Winter 26-27 Ro24 is HERE! [$1250] International ShieldBattery League
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Deus Ex 3!? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 9830 users

[SC2B Key Contest]Supply Depot Forts

Blogs > yh8c4
Post a Reply
yh8c4
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
108 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-13 12:51:57
April 13 2010 09:40 GMT
#1
CONTEST IS OVER! WINNER: forti

I have a unused friend invite key, which you are able to win by being the first to answer the following question:

First we need some definitions:

A supply depot fort is a square center area surrounded by an arbitrary number of supply depot rings. A ring either completely surrounds the center area or another ring.

Example 1 (just treat submerged depots as if there were no depots at that location)

Let's say your fort must be made of exactly eight supply depots, then the only valid configuration is this one:

[image loading]

---

Example 2:
If you use 32 depots, there are two valid configurations:

[image loading]

[image loading]

---

We define s to be the number of used supply depots and nC(s) to be the number of valid supply depot fort configurations made of s supply depots (e.g. nC(32) = 2).

Furthermore let's say you have exactly one million supply depots at your disposal and you can choose any amount x of those supply depots to build a fort.

We define f(n) to be the number of different x for which nC(x) = n.

Example:
+ Show Spoiler +

'f(13) = 123' means: there are 123 different values for x, so that for each of those x there are exactly 13 distinct, valid supply depot fort configurations.

f(13) is not necessarily 123, I just made that up, but to check if you're on the right way, here is a hint:

+ Show Spoiler +

Calculate f(15). edit: f(15) = 832
Multiply the result with 123456.
Go here
Enter this text:

GxD4AhayOeDnC8oY7wKGVhRJ3BTPYiTxfomXV4SLiWTpSHmxa3C7+/v3ONNbTbeRZ7ZEhG0xHMV6R5aU0CL1gA==

Use what you calculated as password and decrypt.
Decrypted text should be 'correct'




Here comes the questions worth the beta key:

What is the sum of f(1)+ f(2) + ... + f(9) + f(10)?

Answer
+ Show Spoiler +

209566

forti's (annotated) c++ solution

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
//standard C libraries

int array[1000005];
//array that stores the number of solutions using 1-1000000 supply depots

int main()
{
memset(array,0,sizeof(array));
//setting everything to 0 initially

for(int i=1;i<=249999;i++)
//the width of center blank square AKA, i am assuming an
//i x i square. 249999 is the maximum width possible with
//1000000 supply depots used (1000000-4)/4
{
int sum=0;
//the number of boxes used at the moment

//the following section of the code basically adds
//"supply depot layers" to the center square 1 by 1
for(int j=i;;j+=2)
{
int k=j*4+4;
sum+=k;
if(sum>1000000) break;
array[sum]++;
}
}
int temp,c;
c=0;

//the final part computes f(1) to f(10) from what was
// found previously
for(temp=1;temp<=10;temp++)
{
for(int i=1;i<=1000000;i++)
{
if(array[i]==temp)c++;
}
}
printf("%d\n",c);
system("PAUSE");
}



---

Some details:

- My bnet account is on Europe and I don't know if the person using the friend key will also have to use a european account. Maybe someone can clarify that for me.

- I not only want the correct answer, I also want a little explanation why your answer is correct (source code, or just a short text describing the way you arrived at the solution)

- You can either post your entry in this blog or send me a pm.

- You are not limited to one guess, but please be reasonable and don't just bomb me with all integers from 1-100000 or something

- I will check this thread and pms periodically and let you know when I checked a possible solution

- The problem is kinda difficult, but I'm rather mediocre at maths and I was able to solve it after (quite) some time so I'm confident someone will find the solution.

Good luck!

edit1: just some definition clarifications
edit2: we have a winner. edited in the solution

***
CaucasianAsian
Profile Blog Joined September 2005
Korea (South)11603 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-13 09:50:01
April 13 2010 09:49 GMT
#2
why'd you close your other blog? meaning what was the answer to the other question?
Calendar@ Fish Server: `iOps]..Stark
Moletrap
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States1297 Posts
April 13 2010 10:05 GMT
#3
Awesome contest!
aka Moletrap
forti
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Singapore9 Posts
April 13 2010 10:14 GMT
#4
+ Show Spoiler +

my answer is 209566
using:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int array[1000005];
int main()
{
memset(array,0,sizeof(array));
for(int i=1;i<=249999;i++)//center square
{
int sum=0;
for(int j=i;;j+=2)
{
int k=j*4+4;
sum+=k;
if(sum>1000000) break;
array[sum]++;
}
}
int temp,c;
c=0;
for(temp=1;temp<=10;temp++)
{
for(int i=1;i<=1000000;i++)
{
if(array[i]==temp)c++;
}
}
printf("%d\n",c);
system("PAUSE");
}

yh8c4
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
108 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-13 10:54:56
April 13 2010 10:41 GMT
#5
the contest is already over, forti is the new owner of the beta key.

For anyone still interested in solving the question:

The described problem is a obfuscated version of this, so if you open an account there you can check your solution there (or you could just peek into forti's spoiler)

Seems like i kinda underestimated the possibility to brute force, but when I worked on that problem, my main difficulties were understanding and abstracting the problem and coming up with an algorithm. forti was much faster on that part, and thus is a worthy winner imo. Have fun playing sc2.

Btw, the first problem i posted i didn't paraphrase at all (just screenshotted this), and didn't realize that because of that the solution was just one google search away, and that's why the first contest was cancelled.

Anyways, I'm out of beta keys, so I guess this can also be closed now
tyCe
Profile Joined March 2010
Australia2542 Posts
April 13 2010 10:46 GMT
#6
Damn it! I chose dinner over this and I paid the price.
Betrayed by EG.BuK
tarpman
Profile Joined February 2009
Canada723 Posts
April 13 2010 10:55 GMT
#7
I spent some time thinking about an elegant mathematical solution. Then I put that aside and wrote a bruteforce version very similar to forti's in Python... but it was still running when forti won damn Python's slowness!

forti, gg! nice first post!
Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time.
Zona
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
40426 Posts
April 13 2010 10:59 GMT
#8
heh, I was watching KT vs STX and only saw this after the second set - like tarpman, had something in python going.

But then again I don't really crave a beta key close to as much as others here, so it's fine.
"If you try responding to those absurd posts every day, you become more damaged. So I pay no attention to them at all." Jung Myung Hoon (aka Fantasy), as translated by Kimoleon
yh8c4
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
108 Posts
April 13 2010 11:07 GMT
#9
i'm quite surprised there are still so many people around here wanting a beta key. I had this key sitting in my inbox for quite some time, but for some reason i thought there wasn't much demand anymore
madnessman
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States1581 Posts
April 13 2010 11:17 GMT
#10
On April 13 2010 20:07 yh8c4 wrote:
i'm quite surprised there are still so many people around here wanting a beta key. I had this key sitting in my inbox for quite some time, but for some reason i thought there wasn't much demand anymore


You should probably donate it to one of those poor starcraft players who didn't get a key *cough madnessman cough*....
yh8c4
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
108 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-13 11:19:31
April 13 2010 11:18 GMT
#11
On April 13 2010 20:07 yh8c4 wrote:
i'm quite surprised there are still so many people around here wanting a beta key. I had this key sitting in my inbox for quite some time, but for some reason i thought there wasn't much demand anymore


Perguvious
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States1783 Posts
April 13 2010 11:53 GMT
#12
On April 13 2010 19:14 forti wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

my answer is 209566
using:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int array[1000005];
int main()
{
memset(array,0,sizeof(array));
for(int i=1;i<=249999;i++)//center square
{
int sum=0;
for(int j=i;;j+=2)
{
int k=j*4+4;
sum+=k;
if(sum>1000000) break;
array[sum]++;
}
}
int temp,c;
c=0;
for(temp=1;temp<=10;temp++)
{
for(int i=1;i<=1000000;i++)
{
if(array[i]==temp)c++;
}
}
printf("%d\n",c);
system("PAUSE");
}


*sigh* I just didn't understand any of that
krndandaman
Profile Joined August 2009
Mozambique16569 Posts
April 13 2010 12:06 GMT
#13
--- Nuked ---
josemb40
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Peru611 Posts
April 13 2010 14:19 GMT
#14
congrats
wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
GreEny K
Profile Joined February 2008
Germany7312 Posts
April 13 2010 15:07 GMT
#15
On April 13 2010 21:06 krndandaman wrote:
i've entered around 10 competitions for a sc2 beta key rofl


Ditto, maybe even more... Everyone's getting keys except me!! I even know people who won more than one some ever 3 but I still don't have one
Why would you ever choose failure, when success is an option.
krndandaman
Profile Joined August 2009
Mozambique16569 Posts
April 13 2010 15:11 GMT
#16
--- Nuked ---
ReketSomething
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States6012 Posts
April 13 2010 18:16 GMT
#17
One of my favorite contests so far ^^
Jaedong :3
jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5546 Posts
April 13 2010 18:47 GMT
#18
pretty neat
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
3FFA
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States3931 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-13 21:07:41
April 13 2010 21:06 GMT
#19
wtf. This seems like a contest at school. I don't get to know about it until its already over/too late.

edit: I mean, this happened when I was asleep.... well I guess I've taken "you snooze you loose" to a new level lol.
"As long as it comes from a pure place and from a honest place, you know, you can write whatever you want."
Kenpachi
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States9908 Posts
April 13 2010 22:39 GMT
#20
On April 14 2010 00:11 krndandaman wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 14 2010 00:07 GreEny K wrote:
On April 13 2010 21:06 krndandaman wrote:
i've entered around 10 competitions for a sc2 beta key rofl


Ditto, maybe even more... Everyone's getting keys except me!! I even know people who won more than one some ever 3 but I still don't have one


facebook's about to release a few more keys in 2hours on the starcraft fan page.

it's a F5 refreshing fest.

join the club. Were all Beta key contest failures
Nada's body is South Korea's greatest weapon.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
08:00
QMC 2: Invitational Tournament
ChoboTeamLeague
06:30
Best Games SC
Discussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft631
NeuroSwarm 242
RuFF_SC2 201
Nina 97
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 3001
GuemChi 1479
Hyuk 190
Bisu 145
Snow 106
Noble 19
ProTech15
yabsab 12
Icarus 8
Force[name] 6
Dota 2
LuMiX1
League of Legends
Doublelift4983
Counter-Strike
fl0m3607
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King177
Other Games
summit1g14481
JimRising 604
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick842
Counter-Strike
PGL354
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH278
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Mapu66
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2129
League of Legends
• Lourlo888
• Rush879
• Stunt325
Other Games
• Shiphtur493
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Weekly
6h 13m
Ultimate Battle
6h 13m
Rush vs BeSt
Replay Cast
17h 13m
Rogue vs Classic
Patches Events
1d 7h
PiGosaur Cup
1d 19h
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
KCM Race Survival
3 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
5 days
herO vs Rogue
Reynor vs Solar
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs MaxPax
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
IPSL
5 days
WorsT vs nOmaD
Dewalt vs andersOn
IntoTheTV X SOOP
6 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
IPSL
6 days
Azhi_Dahaki vs ggnore13
Double vs WIZARD
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-11-01
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
IEM Beijing 2026
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

1xBet Invitational
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.