Problem

2017 AMC 8 Problem 15

In the arrangement of letters and numerals below, by how many different paths can one spell AMC8? Beginning at the A in the middle, a path allows only moves from one letter to an adjacent (above, below, left, or right, but not diagonal) letter. One example of such a path is traced in the picture. [asy] fill((0.5, 4.5)--(1.5,4.5)--(1.5,2.5)--(0.5,2.5)--cycle,lightgray); fill((1.5,3.5)--(2.5,3.5)--(2.5,1.5)--(1.5,1.5)--cycle,lightgray); label("$8$", (1, 0)); label("$C$", (2, 0)); label("$8$", (3, 0)); label("$8$", (0, 1)); label("$C$", (1, 1)); label("$M$", (2, 1)); label("$C$", (3, 1)); label("$8$", (4, 1)); label("$C$", (0, 2)); label("$M$", (1, 2)); label("$A$", (2, 2)); label("$M$", (3, 2)); label("$C$", (4, 2)); label("$8$", (0, 3)); label("$C$", (1, 3)); label("$M$", (2, 3)); label("$C$", (3, 3)); label("$8$", (4, 3)); label("$8$", (1, 4)); label("$C$", (2, 4)); label("$8$", (3, 4));[/asy]

\textbf{(A) }8\qquad\textbf{(B) }9\qquad\textbf{(C) }12\qquad\textbf{(D) }24\qquad\textbf{(E) }36

Full credit goes to MAA for authoring these problems. These problems were taken on the AOPS website.


Show/Hide Problem Tags

Problem Tags: No tags
Want to contribute problems and receive full credit? Click here to add your problem!
Please report any issues to us in our Discord server
Go to previous contest problem (SHIFT + Left Arrow) Go to next contest problem (SHIFT + Right Arrow)
Category: AMC 8
Points: 2
Back to practice
Train more like this