Question 30
Let $n$ be a positive integer. There are $n$ islands with $n - 1$ bridges connecting them such that one can travel from any island to another. One afternoon, a fire breaks out in one of the islands. Every morning, it spreads to all neighbouring islands. (Two islands are neighbours if they are connected by a bridge.) To control the spread, one bridge is destroyed every night until the fire has nowhere to spread the next day. Let $X$ be the minimum possible number of bridges one has to destroy before the fire stops spreading. Find the maximum possible value of $X$ over all possible configurations of bridges and islands where the fire starts at.