Board games

Question

John invented a board game where a square board with X number of rows and X number of squares in each row was used. which of the following can be the possible number of squares which are not alongside the boundaries?

a 26

b 8

c 24

d 0

e 82

 

could anyone please explain the answer as well? 

Answer 1

The answer is 0 because the of squares which are not alongside the boundaries form a square, so the number of them should be a square of an integer, but none of the options have this property, so we are left with the case that the board is 2 by 2 and the number of squares which are not alongside the boundaries is 0.

Answer 2

The only answer is 0. If you have zero squares along the boundaries then you have 0*0 and you don't have a board.