Factors, Multiple and Primes - Short Problems

This is part of our collection of Short Problems.

You may also be interested in our longer problems on Factors, Multiples and Primes.

Printable worksheets containing selections of these problems are available here.

Pairing Up

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

The numbers 72, 8, 24, 10, 5, 45, 36, 15 are grouped in pairs so that each pair has the same product. Which number is paired with 10?

Tricky Customer

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Charlie doesn't want his new house number to be divisible by 3 or 5. How many choices of house does he have?

Calculation 2000

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 49 - 2013
What is the value of 2000 + 1999 × 2000?

Stamp Collecting

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Last week, Tom and Sophie bought some stamps and they spent exactly £10. Can you work out how many stamps they bought?

Prime Order

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 24 - 2006
How many of the rearrangements of the digits 1, 3 and 5 give prime numbers?

Almost a Million

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 26 - 2014
Which of the given numbers is divisible by 6?

Divisible Digits

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Can you find the missing digits, given that the number is divisible by 3, 4, 5 and 6?

Little Goldbach

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

How many of the numbers 1 to 20 are not the sum of two primes?

What's on the Back?

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Four cards have a number on one side and a phrase on the back. On each card, the number does not have the property described on the back. What do the four cards have on them?

Multiplication Table Puzzle

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

In the multiplication table on the right, only some of the numbers have been given. What is the value of A+B+C+D+E?

Producing Zeros

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 10 - 2008
If the numbers 1 to 10 are all multiplied together, how many zeros are at the end of the answer?

Factor Trio

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Which of the numbers shown is the product of exactly 3 distinct prime factors?

Reversible Primes

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

How many two-digit primes are there between 10 and 99 which are also prime when reversed?

Multiple Years

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 18 - 2016
The year 2010 is one in which the sum of the digits is a factor of the year itself. What is the next year that has the same property?

Product 100

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

The product of four different positive integers is 100. What is the sum of these four integers?

Find from Factors

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 35 - 2006
A number has exactly eight factors, two of which are 21 and 35. What is the number?

Jenny's Logic

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 52 - 2009
How did Jenny figure out that Tom's cards added to an even number?

Back of the Queue

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 48 - 2013
What is the remainder when the number 743589×301647 is divided by 5?

Digital Division

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

How many three digit numbers formed with three different digits from 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5 are divisible by 6?

Smallest Abundant Number

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 34 - 2017
An abundant number is a positive integer N such that the sum of the factors of N is larger than 2N. What is the smallest abundant number?

AB Search

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

The five digit number A679B, in base ten, is divisible by 72. What are the values of A and B?

Adjacent Factors

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Two numbers can be placed adjacent if one of them divides the other. Using only $1,...,10$, can you write the longest such list?

Ones, Twos and Threes

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Each digit of a positive integer is 1, 2 or 3, and each of these occurs at least twice. What is the smallest such integer that is not divisible by 2 or 3?

Halloween Day

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

One year there were exactly four Tuesdays and four Fridays in October. On what day of the week was Halloween.

Red Card Blue Card

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Can you arrange the red and blue cards so that the rules are all followed?

One Short

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

A whole number less than 100 gives remainders of 2, 3 and 4 when divided by 3, 4 and 5. What is the remainder when it is divided by 7?

Grandma's Cake

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

What is the smallest number of pieces grandma should cut her cake into to guarantee each grandchild gets the same amount of cake and none is left over?

Cakes and Buns

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Helen buys some cakes and some buns for her party. Can you work out how many of each she buys?

Factor Sum

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Given any positive integer n, Paul adds together the factors of n, apart from n itself. Which of the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 can never be Paul's answer?

Leap Monday

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Can you find the next time that the 29th of February will fall on a Monday?

Missing Digit

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

What digit must replace the star to make the number a multiple of 11?

Trailing Zeros

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

How many zeros does 50! have at the end?

Four or Five

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

The diagram shows a large rectangle composed of 9 smaller rectangles. If each of these rectangles has integer sides, what could the area of the large rectangle be?

Big Blackboard

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Can you work out which numbers between 1 and 2016 have exactly two of 2, 3, 4 as factors?

17s and 23s

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Can you form this 2010-digit number...

Common Remainder

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

144 divided by n leaves a remainder of 11. 220 divided by n also leaves a remainder of 11. What is n?

Cinema Costs

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 41 - 2009
At a cinema a child's ticket costs £4.20 and an adult's ticket costs £7.70. How much did is cost this group of adults and children to see a film?

Seven from Nine

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

In how many ways can seven of the numbers 1-9 be chosen such that they add up to a multiple of 3?

Colossal Sum

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

What is the units digit in this sum of powers of 9?

HCF Expression

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Find out which two distinct primes less than $7$ will give the largest highest common factor of these two expressions.

Powerful Finale

Age 11 to 14 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 24 - 2017
What is the last digit of $3^{2011}$?

End of a Prime

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

I made a list of every number that is the units digit of at least one prime number. How many digits appear in the list?

Threes and Fours

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

What is the smallest integer where every digit is a 3 or a 4 and it is divisible by both 3 and 4?

Essential Supplies

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Chocolate bars come in boxes of 5 or boxes of 12. How many boxes do you need to have exactly 2005 chocolate bars?

Peter's Primes

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Peter wrote a list of all the numbers that can be formed by changing one digit of the number 200. How many of Peter's numbers are prime?

Indivisible

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Each time a class lines up in different sized groups, a different number of people are left over. How large can the class be?

Flora the Florist

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Flora has roses in three colours. What is the greatest number of identical bunches she can make, using all the flowers?

Punky Fish

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

A male punky fish has 9 stripes and a female punky fish has 8 stripes. I count 86 stripes on the fish in my tank. What is the ratio of male fish to female fish?

Triangular Algebra

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 26 - 2017
The angles in the triangle are shown in the diagram in terms of x and y. If x and y are positive integers, what is the value of x+y?

Relative Time

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Albert Einstein is experimenting with two unusual clocks. At what time do they next agree?

Times and Square

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Roger multiplies two consecutive integers and squares the result. Can you find the last two digits of his new number?

Coin Collection

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

When coins are put into piles of six 3 remain and in piles of eight 7 remain. How many remain when they are put into piles of 24?

Added Power

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

How many integers $n$ are there for which $n$ and $n^3+3$ are both prime?

Sticky Fingers

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Ruth wants to puts stickers on the cuboid she has made from little cubes. Will she have any stickers left over?

Eight Factors Only

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

We are given two factors of a number with eight factors. Can you work out the other factors of the number?

Square Sum

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

One of these numbers is the largest of nine consecutive positive integers whose sum is a perfect square. Which one is it?

Last-but-one

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

What is the last-but-one digit of 99! ?

Powerful Zeros

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

How many zeros are there at the end of $3^4 \times 4^5 \times 5^6$?

Long List

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 47 - 2017
How many numbers do I need in a list to have two squares, two primes and two cubes?

Divisible Palindrome

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

What is the sum of the digits of the largest 4-digit palindromic number which is divisible by 15?

Cancelling Fractions

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Can you find a fraction with the following properties?

Factor List

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Tina has chosen a number and has noticed something about its factors. What number could she have chosen? Are there multiple possibilities?

Three Primes

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 6 - 2010
Can you find three primes such that their product is exactly five times their sum? Do you think you have found all possibilities?

Fortunate Inflation

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

The price of an item in pounds and pence is increased by 4%. The new price is an integer number of pounds. Can you find it?

Leftovers

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 26 - 2008
If $n$ is a positive integer, how many different values for the remainder are obtained when $n^2$ is divided by $n+4$?

Square LCM

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Using the hcf and lcf of the numerators, can you deduce which of these fractions are square numbers?

Rational Integer

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 39 - 2012
For how many values of $n$ are both $n$ and $\frac{n+3}{n−1}$ integers?

Factorised Factorial

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 17 - 2010
The value of the factorial $n!$ is written in a different way. Can you work what $n$ must be?

Super Computer

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

What is the units digit of the given expression?

Square Product

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 10 - 2011
Will this product give a perfect square?

Integer Indices

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

From this sum of powers, can you find the sum of the indices?

Primes and Six

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

Weekly Problem 1 - 2015
If $p$ and $q$ are prime numbers greater than $3$ and $q=p+2$, prove that $pq+1$ is divisible by $36$.

Adding a Square to a Cube

Age 14 to 16 Short
Challenge Level

If you take a number and add its square to its cube, how often will you get a perfect square?