Problem

Source: Caucasus MO 2024, Juniors P1

Tags: combinatorics



Balls of $3$ colours — red, blue and white — are placed in two boxes. If you take out $3$ balls from the first box, there would definitely be a blue one among them. If you take out $4$ balls from the second box, there would definitely be a red one among them. If you take out any $5$ balls (only from the first, only from the second, or from two boxes at the same time), then there would definitely be a white ball among them. Find the greatest possible total number of balls in two boxes.