Counting

Problems for Practice:

1. In how many ways can 7 Indians, 5 Pakistanis and 6 Dutch be seated in a row so that all persons of
the same nationality sit together?
a. 3! b. 7!5!6! c. 3!7!5!6! d. 182

2. In how many ways can the letters of the word DELHI be arranged?
a. 119 b. 120 c. 60 d. 24

3. In how many ways can 12 papers be arranged if the best and the worst paper never come
together?
a. 12!/2! b. 12! – 11! c. (12! – 11!)/2 d. 12! – 2.11!

4. There are 5 blue socks, 4 red socks and 3 green socks in Debu’s wardrobe. He has to select 4 socks
from this set. In how many ways can he do so?
a. 245 b. 120 c. 495 d. 60

5. A man has 3 shirts, 4 trousers and 6 ties. What are the number of ways in which he can dress
himself with a combination of all the three?
a. 13 b. 72 c. 13!/3!.4!.6! d. 3!.4!.6!

6. The number of ways the letters of the word ‘TRIANGLE’ to be arranged so that the word ‘angle’
will be always present is
a. 20 b. 60 c. 24 d. 32

7. Out of 7 gents and 4 ladies a committee of 5 is to be formed. Find the number of committees such
that each committee includes at least one lady
a. 400 b. 440 c. 441 d. None of these

8. In a paper from 2 groups of 5 questions each you have to answer any 6 questions attempting at
least 2 questions from each group. This is possible in ---------------- number of ways.
a. 100 b. 50 c. 200 d. None of these

9. A party of 6 is to be formed from 10 men and 7 women so as to include 3 men and 3 women. In
how many ways the party can be formed if two particular women refuse to join it?
a. 4,200 b. 600 c. 3,600 d. None of these

10. You are selecting a cricket team of first 11 players out of 16 including 4 bowlers and 2 wicket-
keepers. In how many ways you can do it so that the team contains exactly 3 bowlers and 1
wicket-keeper?
a. 960 b. 840 c. 420 d. 252

11. The probability that exactly one head appears in a single throw of two fair coins is
 3 1 1
a. b. c. d. None of these
4 2 4

12. The probability that at least one head appears in a single throw of three fair coins is
1 7 1
a. b. c. d. None of these
8 8 3

13. Two unbiased coins are tossed. The probability of obtaining at least one head is
1 2 3
a. b. c. d. None of these
4 4 4

14. When three unbiased coins are tossed, the probability of obtaining not more than 3 heads is
3 1
a. b. c. 1 d. 0
4 2

15. The chance of getting a sum of 10 in a single throw with two dice is
10 1 5
a. b. c. d. None of these
36 12 36

16. Two dice with face marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are thrown simultaneously and the points on the dice are
multiplied together. The probability that product is 12 is
12 4 5
a. b. c. d. None of these
36 36 36

17. Two dice are thrown together. The probability of the event that the sum of numbers shown is
greater than 5 is
13 15
a. b. c. 1 d. None of these
18 18

18. A dice is rolled twice. What is the probability of getting a difference of 2 points?
1 2 2
a. b. c. 1 d.
3 3 9

19. A card is drawn from a well-shuffled pack of playing cards. The probability that it is a king is
1 1 4
a. b. c. d. None of these
13 4 13

20. A card is drawn from a well-shuffled pack of playing cards. The probability that it is the ace of
clubs is
1 1 1
a. b. c. d. None of these
13 4 52

21. What is the chance of picking a spade or an ace not of spade from a packet of 52 cards?
1 1 4
a. b. c. d. None of these
13 4 13

22. What is the chance of getting at least one defective item if 3 items are drawn randomly from a lot
containing 6 items of which 2 are defective item?
a. 0.30 b. 0.20 c. 0.80 d. 0.50
23. A packet of 10 electronic components is known to include 2 defectives. If a sample of 4
components is selected from the packet at random, what is the probability that the sample does
not contain more than 1 defective?
a. 1/3 b. 2/3 c. 13/15 d. 3/15

24. A husband and a wife appear in an interview for two vacancies for the same post. The probability
of husband’s selection is 1/7 and that of the wife’s selection is 1/5. What is the probability that
one of them will be selected?
a. 1/7 b. 3/7 c. 2/7 d. 5/7

25. There are three persons aged 60, 65 and 70 years old. The survival probabilities for these three
persons for another five years are 0.7, 0.4 and 0.2 respectively. What is the probability that at
least two of them would survive another five years?
a. 0.425 b. 0.456 c. 0.392 d. 0.388

26. Tom speaks truth in 30 % cases and Harry speaks truth in 25 % cases. What is the probability that
they would contradict each other?
a. 0.325 b. 0.400 c. 0.925 d. 0.075

27. Eleven books, consisting of five Engineering books, four mathematics books and two physics books
are arranged in a shelf at random. What is the probability that the books of each kind are all
together?
5 2 3 1
a. b. c. d.
1155 1155 1155 1155

28. Six boys and six girls sit in a row randomly. Find the probability that all the six girls sit together.
3 1 1 1
a. b. c. d.
22 132 1584 66

29. Three groups of children contain 3 girls and 1 boy, 2 girls and 2 boys, and 1 girl and 2 boys
respectively. One child is selected at random from each group. The probability that the three
selected consist of 1 girl and 2 boys is
3 1 3 5
a. b. c. d.
8 5 5 8
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