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IMO ShortList 2002, combinatorics problem 3

Source: IMO ShortList 2002, combinatorics problem 3

September 28, 2004
combinatoricsIMO Shortlistcountingbijection

Problem Statement

Let nn be a positive integer. A sequence of nn positive integers (not necessarily distinct) is called full if it satisfies the following condition: for each positive integer k2k\geq2, if the number kk appears in the sequence then so does the number k1k-1, and moreover the first occurrence of k1k-1 comes before the last occurrence of kk. For each nn, how many full sequences are there ?