Am I meant to assume a_i is defined the same way as a_n for each of 1<= i <= n-1 ?
If so, I think I see the proof by induction on n, but the question just says a_i is defined for each 1<=i<=n-1, not that it is defined in that way. Is the question just overly vague or am I missing something obvious?
If only a_n is defined as the greatest integer such that the sum from 0 to n of each a_i/k^i is <=x, then I think there are counterexamples to the hypothesis, right?
Like if x=0.32, k=2, n=2, then a_0=0, and the inequality is satisfied by a_1 = 2 > k-1 = 1 and a_2 = -3 < 0.
So if x=0.32 and k=2 then a1=0, a2=1, a3=0 etc
I’ll use this final comment to complain about how lazy some mathematics professors are with formulating their questions that it sometimes takes more time to decipher the question than to come up with the correct answer.