Question 102
We will call a natural number Yambolian if it can be represented in the form $a^2 + 6ab + b^2$, where $a$ and $b$ are (not necessarily different) natural numbers. The number $36^{2024}$ is written as the sum of $k$ number of (not necessarily distinct) Yambol numbers. What is the smallest possible value of $k$?
(Miroslav Marinov)
(Miroslav Marinov)