2012 AMC 10B Problem 22

Every prefix $a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_i$ must form an interval of consecutive integers: each new term is required to be one more or one less than a term already present. In particular, the full set is the interval $[1,10].$ Read the list backward. At each step, the term removed must be either the smallest or the largest integer in the current interval; removing an interior term would leave that term with no adjacent predecessor in the forward list. Conversely, every sequence of endpoint removals produces a valid list. There are two choices for each of $a_{10},a_9,\ldots,a_2,$ after which $a_1$ is forced. Hence there are $2^9=512$ lists. Thus, the correct answer is B .