Year with 53 Saturdays and 53 Sundays — How many weekend days does its January contain?

Difficulty: Medium

Correct Answer: 10

Explanation:


Introduction / Context:
A year having 53 Saturdays and 53 Sundays implies specific start-day and leap-year structure. We use that structure to infer January's weekend-day count.


Given Data / Assumptions:

  • Total Saturdays = 53 and total Sundays = 53 in the year.
  • Gregorian rule: such years occur when the year is a leap year starting on a Saturday (e.g., 2000).


Concept / Approach:
In a leap year that starts on Saturday, January contains five Saturdays and five Sundays (because Jan 1 is Saturday and the month has 31 days), yielding 10 weekend days in January.


Step-by-Step Solution:

1) For 53 Saturdays and 53 Sundays, the configuration must allow both weekend days to occur 53 times; this aligns with a leap year starting on Saturday.2) January of such a year starts on Saturday and runs 31 days → Saturdays on 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 and Sundays on 2, 9, 16, 23, 30.3) Count = 10 weekend days.


Verification / Alternative check:
Check a known example (Year 2000): Jan 2000 indeed had 10 weekend days.


Why Other Options Are Wrong:

  • 8 or 9: too few given the start-day pattern in this special case.
  • None of these: 10 is a valid, determinable value.


Common Pitfalls:

  • Interpreting “53 weekends” as 53 week-pairs instead of separate Saturday and Sunday counts.


Final Answer:
10

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