HMMT-Nov 2018 guts, Problem 2

Pascal has a triangle. In the $n$th row, there are $n+1$ numbers $a_{n, 0}, a_{n, 1}, a_{n, 2}, \ldots, a_{n, n}$ where $a_{n, 0}=a_{n, n}=1$. For all $1 \leq k \leq n-1, a_{n, k}=a_{n-1, k}-a_{n-1, k-1}$. What is the sum of all numbers in the 2018th row?

Solution: In general, the sum of the numbers on the $n$th row will be \[ \sum_{k=0}^{n} a_{n, k}=a_{n, 0}+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1}\left(a_{n-1, k}-a_{n-1, k-1}\right)+a_{n, n}=a_{n, 0}+\left(a_{n-1, n-1}-a_{n-1,0}\right)+a_{n, n}=2 \] $\fbox{2}$.

Answer: 2