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 Set Problems:
Set is one of the most fundamental concepts of mathematics and you can expect some
questions in the Admission test that test your knowledge of sets. Set is a mathematical way to
describe a collection of distinct objects, such as a list of numbers, a group of students studying
the same subject etc. The individual objects in a set are referred to as elements or members of
the set. The elements or members of a set can be anything: numbers, people, letters of the
alphabet, other sets and so on. Sets are conventionally denoted with capital letters.
Unions:
When you combine the elements of two or more sets, you are finding the union of the sets. The
symbol for union is U.
Intersections:
When you find the elements that two or more sets have in common, you are finding the
intersection of the set. The symbol for intersection is ∩.
Formula for finding out the number of elements in the intersection or union of more than
two sets:
If the number of elements in set A, set B, intersection of sets A & B and union of sets A & B are
denoted by n(A), n(B), n(A∩B) and n(AUB) respectively, then
n (AUB) = n (A) + n (B) – n (A∩B)

Example: Of 30 applicants for a job, 14 had at least 4 years experience, 18 had degrees, and 3
had less than 4 years experience and did not have a degree. How many of the applicants had
at least 4 years experience and a degree.
(AB Bank Management Trainee)
(A) 14 (B) 13 (C) 9 (D) 7 (E) 5

†gvU wZbwU wbq‡g GB AsKwU Kiv hvK-

1g wbqg 28 had at least (Kgc‡¶) 5 years experience  48 – 28 = 20 had less than 5 years
experiences. cÖkœ Abymv‡i ,GB 20 R‡bi g‡a¨ 10 R‡bi Degree †bB |  evwK 10 R‡bi wbðqB
Degree Av‡Q| Zvn‡j less than 5 years experience-‡`i 10 R‡bi MBA degree Av‡Q| evwK MBA
degree holder = 30 – 10 = 20 Rb
GB 20 R‡bi Zvn‡j at least 5 years experience Av‡Q| (E).
2q wbqg Total = A+B-AB+N

 30 = 14+18-Both+3

 30 = 35-Both
 Both = 35-30 = 5 (E)

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 3q wbqg

4 year experience 4 year experience

†gvU
Av‡Q Ggb PvKix cÖv_©x bvB Ggb PvKix cÖv_©x

MBA Degree Av‡Q

13
Ggb PvKix cÖv_©x 5 18

MBA Degree bvB

12
Ggb PvKix cÖv_©x 18 3

†gvU PvKix
†gvU 14 16
cÖv_©x = 30

For three sets A, B and C

 n(AᴜBᴜC) = n(A) + n(B) + n(C) – n(A∩B) – n(B∩C) – n(C∩A) +

n(A∩B∩C)

Class Work
Type‐ 1: Set Theory

There are ‘e’ students in a school studying English and ‘a’ students studying Arabic. How
many students study English and Arabic or both if ‘b” students study both?
(Agrani Bank, Senior Officer‐2011)
A) e + a B) ea + b C) e + a ‐ b D) e(a ‐ b) E) e + a ‐ 2b

Type‐ 2: Set Theory

Of the 65 cars on a car lot, 45 have air conditioning, 30 have power windows, and 12 have
both air conditioning and power windows. How many of the cars on the lot have neither air
conditioning nor power windows?
[Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation Senior Officer]
A. 2 B. 8 C. 12 D. 18 E. 20
Type‐ 3: Set Theory

At a certain party attended by 32 people, 24 were students. If 12 of those in attendance

were women, and if 6 of the women in attendance were students, then how many of the
men who attended the party were not students? National Credit & Bank, MTO
A. 2 B. 4 C. 8 D. 12 E. 18

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Type‐ 4: Set Theory

In a survey at an airport, 55 said that last year they had been to Spain, 53 to France and 79
to Germany, 18 had been to Spain and France, 17 to Spain and Germany, and 25 to France
and Germany while 10 had to all three countries. How many travelers took part in the
Survey? [Agrani Bank SO (Auditor) Written‐2018] [Rupali Bank Cash‐2018]

Type‐ 5: Set Theory

70 students are enrolled in Management, Accounting and Marketing, 40 students are in

Management, 35 are in Accounting, and 30 are in Marketing. 15 students are enrolled in all
three courses. How many of the students are enrolled in exactly two of the courses?
(Sonali bank Officer 2018, IBA MBA‐2005, IBA MBA 2011)
A. 8 B. 5 C. 6 D. 9 E. None of these

Home Work

01. In a class of 50 students, 18 take music, 26 take art, and 2 take both art and music. How
many students in the class are not enrolled in either music or art?
[Bangladesh Bank, Cash Officer, Sep, 2011]
A. 6 B. 8 C. 16 D. 24 E. 36
02. Among a group of students, 50 played cricket, 50 played hockey and 40 played volley
ball. 15 played both cricket and hockey, 20 played both hockey and volley ball, 15 played
cricket and volley ball and 10 played all three. If every student played at least one game,
find the number of students and how many played only cricket, only hockey and only volley
ball?

03. In a group of 15, 7 have studied Latin, 8 have studied Greek, and 3 have not studied either.
How many of these have studied both?
a) 0 b) 2 c) 3 d) 27 e) 28

04. In a referendum about three proposals, 78% of the people were against at least one of
the proposals, 50% of the people were against 1st proposal, 30% of the people were
against 2nd proposal, and 20% of the people were against 3rd proposal. If 5% of the people
were against all the three proposals, what percentage of people were against more than
one of the three proposals?
(a) 10 (b) 12 (c) 17 (d) 22

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05. In a class of 200 students, 70 played chess, 60 played hockey, and 80 played football.
Thirty played chess and football, 30 played hockey and football, and 40 played chess and
hockey. If 130 people played at least one game, then what is the number of people who
played all the three games?
(a) 40 (b) 20 (c) 10 (d) None of these

06. In a class of 120 students numbered 1 to 120, all even numbered students opt for
Physics, whose numbers are divisible by 5 opt for Chemistry and those whose numbers are
divisible by 7 opt for Math. How many opt for none of the three subjects?
a.19 b.41 c.21 d.26

07. Of the 200 candidates who were interviewed for a position at a call center, 100 had a
two-wheeler, 70 had a credit card and 140 had a mobile phone. 40 of them had both, a two-
wheeler and a credit card, 30 had both, a credit card and a mobile phone and 60 had both, a
two wheeler and mobile phone and 10 had all three. How many candidates had none of the
three?
a. 0 b. 20 c. 10 d.18
08. In a class of 40 students, 12 enrolled for both English and German. 22 enrolled for
German. If the students of the class enrolled for at least one of the two subjects, then how
many students enrolled for only English and not German?

a.30 b. 10 c. 18 d.8

09. In a class 40% of the students enrolled for Math and 70% enrolled for Economics. If
15% of the students enrolled for both Math and Economics, what % of the students of the
class did not enroll for either of the two subjects?
a.5% b.15% c. 0% d. 25%

10. Number of students who took at least one of the three subjects can be found by finding
out A U B U C, where A is the set of those who took Physics, B the set of those who took
Chemistry and C the set of those who opted for Math.

11. There are 87 balls in a jar. Each ball is painted with at least one of two colors, red or green. It
is observed that 2/7 of the balls that have red color also have green color, while 3/7 of the balls
that have green color also have red color. What fraction of the balls in the jar have both red and
green colors?
(A) 6/14 (B) 2/7 (C) 6/35 (D) 6/29 (E) 6/42

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12. All the 120 pupils in a certain school learn French or Spanish or both. 75 learn French and
60 learn Spanish. How many learn both?
(A) 14 (B) 15 (C) 16 (D) 17 (E) None

13. There are 40 students in a music club. Each of them can play either a guitar or a piano or
both. If 30 students can play guitar, and 15 can play both, how many of them can play a piano?
a. 15 b. 20 c. 25 d. 30 e. None
14. In a survey, it was found that 65% of the people polled watched the news on television, 40%
read in a newspaper, and 25% read a newspaper and watched the news on television. What
percent of the people surveyed neither watched the news on television nor read a newspaper?

a. 10% b. 15% c. 20% d. 25% e. 30%

15. In MBA 52st batch, there are 120 students. Eighty of them play football, rest play basketball.
Half of the students follow sports on TV and half follow in internet. If 45 of the students play
football and follow sports on TV, how many of them play basketball and follow sports in
internet?
a. 15 b. 25 c. 35 d. 40 e. None

16. All of the 80 students in a class took either a history course, or a math course or the both. If
50 students took history, and 30 took the both, how many of them took math course?
a. 20 b. 30 c. 40 d. 60 e. 80

17. In MBA 45th batch, 40 percent of the girls are fair and the remainder is brown. Half of the
girls are beautiful and half are moderate. If 10 percent of the girls are fair and beautiful, and 40
girls are brown and moderate, how many girls are fair and moderate?
a. 60 b. 70 c. 40 d. 100 e. 90
18. At City High School, the marching band has 48 members and the orchestra has 36 members.
It a total of 12 members belong to only one of the two groups and all students belong to at least
one group, how many students belong to both groups?
a) 12 b) 18 c) 36 d) 48 e) 72

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