I am sure the answer to this question is well known, but I am not able to figure it out. Question: Let $U$ be a finite set. Let $F=(S_1,S_2,...,S_n)$ be such that: (1) $S_i\subset U$ (2) $|S_i|=n$ (3) $|S_i\cap S_j|\leq n/2$ Then, what is the lowerbound on $|U$|? In other words, what is the smallest $U$ for which there exists an $F$ satisfying the above conditions. Clearly, if $U$ has size $n^2$, it easy to construct such an $F$. You can also do this with just $n^2/2$ elements in $U$. Can you do this with just $O(n)$ elements? What about $O(n^{1+\epsilon})$ for a constant $\epsilon<1$?