Non-decreasing Sequence Averages
CAT 2022 Slot 2 · QA · Hard · Arithmetic
The average of a non-decreasing sequence of numbers is 300. If is replaced by , the new average becomes 400. Then, the number of possible values of is
Answer
14
Explanation
Let . Replacing with increases the sum by . New sum = . Since the sequence is non-decreasing: . Sum . Also , so . Since , we have . Also, , and maximum can be anything, but for non-decreasing sequence, must be non-negative integer if we consider integers, or let's check bounds on . can be any integer from 2 to 15 (if , ). So , which gives 14 possible values for , hence 14 possible values for .
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