[Pikachu_Dad]

The problem is not that hard. She is either giving out 4 bags or 6 bags (variable friendships).

She must buy at minimum of 6 stickers (not the answer), because if she chooses to give out 6 bags, then she must have 6 stickers to put one in every bag.

The next possibility is 12 stickers (first multiple of 6). She can give out 6 bags with two stickers each.

Does this also work for 4?

Yes, it does. She can give out 4 bags with three stickers in each..
needs to buy a multiple of 4 and 6.

So the first available solution is that Juanita should buy 12 stickers.

This is not the only solution. They did not say, what is the MINIMUM number of stickers she could buy. She can buy far more stickers, as long as it she buys stickers in multiples of 12. So 12*n where n is 1,2,3...

Or 12, 24, 36 ... to infinity and beyond - Buzz Lightyear

Now if we wanted to do this by multiplication.

We could have multiplied both numbers together to get 24 (6*4). That would have given us one of the many answers.

However, notice that 4 is 2 * 2 and 6 is 2*3

So we need to eliminate the common multipliers to get the lowest solution.

So drop a 2, and we are left with 2 * 2 * 3 = 12.

Therefore, 12 is the first acceptable answer.

[Cementjungle]

Therefore, 12 is the first acceptable answer.

What happens if she has 13 friends?

[Fantasywriter]

What if she has 7 friends?

[FredZarguna]

It's nice of you to put so much work into it, but the truth is that the problem is completely underspecified and meaningless. Is it not a well-posed question, and such questions do not have answers.

Variable friendships? Please be serious.

[scrabblehack]

That doesn’t follow at all.

number of friends minimum bags
1 4
2 4
3 6
4 4
6 6

Hmm...if she is able to buy 4 bags or 6 bags, the store must sell them in packs of 2. So if she has only one or two friends, she could buy 2 bags of stickers and be done.

So she must have either 3, 4, or 6 friends.

I’m inclined to eliminate 6 friends too. If she had 6 friends, she wouldn’t consider buying 4 bags of stickers.
By the same reasoning, if she had 4 friends, she would know to buy 4 bags of stickers.

I’m guessing that she has 3 friends, and the answer they’re looking for is 6 bags. But as you see this takes a couple of huge assumptions.

[MrB]

Do you really think this was a “least common multiple” question?

I really can’t see lefties actually valuing the ability to do that.