2022 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 20

Solution 5 (Super fast! No algebra and no testing any of the answer choices!)

The sum of the numbers in each column and row should be $5+(-1)+8=12$ . If we look at the $1^{\text{st}}$ column, the gray squares (shown below) sum to $12-(-2)=14$ .

$[asy] draw((3,3)--(-3,3)); draw((3,1)--(-3,1)); draw((3,-3)--(-3,-3)); draw((3,-1)--(-3,-1)); draw((3,3)--(3,-3)); draw((1,3)--(1,-3)); draw((-3,3)--(-3,-3)); draw((-1,3)--(-1,-3)); label((-2,2),"$-2$"); label((0,2),"$9$"); label((2,2),"$5$"); label((2,0),"$-1$"); label((2,-2),"$8$"); label((-2,-2),"$x$"); filldraw((-3,-3)--(-1,-3)--(-1,-1)--(-3,-1)--cycle, lightgray, black+linewidth(1)); filldraw((-1,-1)--(-3,-1)--(-3,1)--(-1,1)--cycle, lightgray, black+linewidth(1)); label(scale(1)*"All credits for original unedited asymptote for the problem go to whoever made the asymptote in the 'Problem' section.", (-0,-5), S); [/asy]$

If square $x$ has to be greater than or equal to the three blank squares, then the least $x$ can be is half the sum of the value of the gray squares, which is $14\div2=7$ . But square $x$ has to be greater than and not greater than or equal to the three blank squares, so the least $x$ can be is $7+1=8$ . Testing for the other rows and columns (it might be smaller than the other two squares!), we find that the smallest $x$ can be is indeed $8$ ; the other two squares are less than $8$ . Therefore, the answer is $\boxed{\text{(D) }8}$ .