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IMO Team Selection Test 3, June 2020

Netherlands 2020 algebra

Problem

Find all functions satisfying for all .
Solution
Substituting yields .

Substituting and yields .

Substituting and then yields in which the left hand side expands as and the right hand as .

Writing , we then get .

Applying induction in both directions, we see that for all .

Substituting then yields for all , so is a linear function.

Now let be such that for all . Then the left hand side of the functional equation evaluates as For all and this must be equal to . Therefore the coefficient for on both sides must be equal (for fixed both sides must give the same function in ), so , and therefore or .

If , substituting yields , which contradicts being an integer.

If , substituting yields , so .

Indeed, if and , then the left hand side also expands to .

Therefore the only solution to the functional equation is the function .

Final answer
f(x) = x - 1

Techniques

Functional Equations