MathDB
Sudoku like grid: selection of n^2 cells

Source: ISI(BS) 2007 #8

April 12, 2012
combinatorics unsolvedcombinatorics

Problem Statement

The following figure shows a 32×323^2 \times 3^2 grid divided into 323^2 subgrids of size 3×33 \times 3. This grid has 8181 cells, 99 in each subgrid. [asy] draw((0,0)--(9,0)--(9,9)--(0,9)--cycle, linewidth(2)); draw((0,1)--(9,1)); draw((0,2)--(9,2)); draw((0,3)--(9,3), linewidth(2)); draw((0,4)--(9,4)); draw((0,5)--(9,5)); draw((0,6)--(9,6), linewidth(2)); draw((0,7)--(9,7)); draw((0,8)--(9,8)); draw((1,0)--(1,9)); draw((2,0)--(2,9)); draw((3,0)--(3,9), linewidth(2)); draw((4,0)--(4,9)); draw((5,0)--(5,9)); draw((6,0)--(6,9), linewidth(2)); draw((7,0)--(7,9)); draw((8,0)--(8,9)); [/asy] Now consider an n2×n2n^2 \times n^2 grid divided into n2n^2 subgrids of size n×nn \times n. Find the number of ways in which you can select n2n^2 cells from this grid such that there is exactly one cell coming from each subgrid, one from each row and one from each column.