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The puzzle writer has named it “Twins and Triplets” but I believe that this might be an alias for the actual name of the puzzle. The premise behind it seems too simple for it not to already exist. I have scoured the web looking for examples but could not find any. Has anyone seen any logic puzzle like it before?

Image Source: Picture of hard copy from AOPS organization

GeronimoFTW
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    Geronimo, I think you'll be quite interested in Problem 1, Round 1 of USAMTS 2017-18: https://www.usamts.org/Tests/Problems_29_1.pdf – greenturtle3141 Jun 08 '19 at 23:50
  • @greenturtle3141 Wow you actually found an example! This truly is interesting because I received this type of puzzle from an organization called AOPS (Art of Problem Solving), a competitive math website, so it makes sense that the puzzle writer was inspired by a national competition. Thank you so much for your help! Let me know if you find anything else. – GeronimoFTW Jun 09 '19 at 03:22
  • @GeronimoFTW I'm an active AOPS member, what exactly is the association with aops? Is it like from a book, or did they just send it to you? – greenturtle3141 Jun 09 '19 at 03:47
  • @greenturtle3141 I only know that the writer of "Twins and Triplets" works at AOPS. Apparently USAMTS is also hosted by AOPS? Quite the coincidence. – GeronimoFTW Jun 09 '19 at 04:10
  • @GeronimoFTW It's possible that the writer of the puzzle may be a writer of USAMTS. – greenturtle3141 Jun 09 '19 at 04:14
  • @greenturtle3141 You seem to have done enough USAMTS practice tests to recognize this puzzle right on the spot. Do you know if writers often create their own puzzles or take existing ones for the competition? – GeronimoFTW Jun 09 '19 at 04:17
  • This conversation has gotten rather long. The comments are not for extended discussion; perhaps you'd like to head to the main PSE chat room to discuss this further? @greenturtle3141 and GeronimoFTW – Brandon_J Jun 09 '19 at 04:26
  • Eh it's fine, I've seen longer. We're not ruining anyone's day. @GeronimoFTW I believe all USAMTS problems are completely original, or at least an original idea of its creator. So if the maker of that puzzle happens to be a writer of USAMTS, it is quite plausible that they simply recycled their own idea, which is pretty fine by me. In fact, I'd say that since USAMTS Problem 1's are all pretty much all original puzzle ideas, this puzzle you have here likely has no "actual name" because it hasn't existed in any form until recently. If you can find the author, you could try contacting them. – greenturtle3141 Jun 09 '19 at 05:00

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Every instance of this type mentioned here, including the USAMTS problem and your screenshot, was written by me. You can also see my contributions GM puzzles, which is the best place to go if you're interested in doing more of these, though it's not free. The original source was me trying to come up with something for a puzzle-starved counting chapter in Beast Academy Online, which is yet another source of content, albeit with elementary school level constructions, and also not free.

I had the same reaction you did when I came up with it and realized it was WPC level: why haven't I seen this type before?

Palmer Mebane
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