Combinatorics Problem on proving that a particular sum is 0
The degree of the polynomial
$$q(x)=\sum_{j=1}^n \prod_{\substack{i=1 \\ i \neq j}}^{n}\frac{x-a_i}{a_{j}-a_{i}}-1$$ is $n-1$ and the $a_j$ for $1 \le j \le n$ are $n$ roots. Therefore $q$ is the always vanishing polynomial and $q$ leading coefficient which is $$\sum_{j=1}^n \frac{1}{\prod_{\substack{i=1 \\ i \neq j}}^{n}(a_{j}-a_{i})}$$ is equal to zero.
Note: all this is closely related to Lagrange polynomials.
Not an answer... but maybe useful
Let $p$ be the polynomial $p(x) = (x-a_1) \dots (x-a_n)$. Then for $1 \le j \le n$
$$p^\prime(a_j)= \prod_{\substack{i=1 \\ i \neq j}}^{n}(a_{j}-a_{i})$$ and the result to be proven is equivalent to
$$\sum_{j=1}^n \frac{1}{p^\prime(a_j)} = 0.$$ However, I don't know how to prove that for the time being...
One can also notice that
$$\lim\limits_{x \to a_j} \frac{x-a_j}{p(x)} = \frac{1}{p^\prime(a_j)}.$$