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PROJECT EULER · #0996

Overtakes

Statement only · UnsolvedOriginal problem ↗

There are n tennis players on a leader board, from rank 1 (highest) to rank n (lowest).

Every day, a match is held between a pair of players with adjacent ranks. When the higher rank player wins, nothing happens; otherwise, their ranks are exchanged, and we call that match an overtake by the winning player.

After k days, the players find that all of them are back to their initial ranks. They then count the number of overtakes by each player.

Here is an example with 3 players, named A,B,C from highest to lowest initial rank.

Match Winner Loser Rank 1,2,3
after match
Overtake counts
A B C
1 C B A,C,B 0 0 1
2 C B A,C,B 0 0 1
3 C A C,A,B 0 0 2
4 A B C,A,B 0 0 2
5 A C A,C,B 1 0 2
6 B C A,B,C 1 1 2

The matches marked with are overtakes.
After 6 days, all players are back to initial ranks with overtake counts 1,1,2.

Let F(n,k) be the number of possible n-tuples of overtake counts after k days, assuming that all players are back to initial ranks.
You are given F(3,4)=8 and F(12,34)=2457178250.

Find F(123,4567891)mod1234567891.

Write-up coming later

The complete problem is available here. An approach, code, and answer will be added later.