2013 HMMT Guts #5: Rahul and his Cards
Source:
March 26, 2013
HMMT
Problem Statement
Rahul has ten cards face-down, which consist of five distinct pairs of matching cards. During each move of his game, Rahul chooses one card to turn face-up, looks at it, and then chooses another to turn face-up and looks at it. If the two face-up cards match, the game ends. If not, Rahul flips both cards face-down and keeps repeating this process. Initially, Rahul doesn't know which cards are which. Assuming that he has perfect memory, find the smallest number of moves after which he can guarantee that the game has ended.