On a problem of Douglass and Ono for the partition function

It is known that the partition function obeys Benford’s law in any integer base <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="b greater-than-or-equal-to 2"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi> <mml:mo> ≥ </mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">b\ge 2</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> . We give an upper bound for the smallest positive integer <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="n"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">n</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> such that the partition function of <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="n"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">n</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> starts with a prescribed string <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="f"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>f</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">f</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> of digits in base <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="b"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">b</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> .