PROBABILITY

Definition:
Probability quantifies the likelihood of an event occurring.

Number of favourable outcomes

P  A 
Total number of outcomes

Sample Space (S): Set of all possible outcomes.

Ex: For a coin: S  H , T 

Events: Subsets of the sample space.

Ex: Getting a head by tossing a coin.

Probability Range: For an event A, 0  P  A  1

P  S   1 (The probability of the entire sample space is 1).

Complementary Event: If ‘A’ is an event, then ‘not A’ or ‘A complement’ is the event

that A does not occur.

Key Points:
 Union of Events: The event that either A, B or both occur.
P  A  B   P  A  P  B   P  A  B 
 Intersection of Events: The event that both A and B occur.
P  A  B   P  A  P  B A
 Independence Events: Events that don’t affect each other. For independence events
A and B:
P  A  B   P  A  P  B 
  Conditional Probability: probability of event A given that event B has occurred.
P  A  B
P  A B 
P  B
 Bayes’ Theorem: It related the probability of A given B to the probability of B given A.
P  B A P  A
P  A B 
P  B
 Multiplication Rule: Used when you want the probability of two events happening
together.
P  Aand B   P  A  P  B A
 Mutually Exclusive (Disjoint) Events: Events that cannot occur at the same time.
P  A  B  0
P  A  B   P  A  P  B 
For those,
 Complementary Events: If P  A is the probability of occurring events and P  A  is
the probability of not occurring events, then P  A  P  A   1 .

Distribution (Advanced):
 Binomial Distribution: It gives the probability of getting r successes in n trials.
 Normal Distribution: Bell-shaped curve. Most data points fall around the mean.
 Poisson distribution: Gives the probability of a given number of events happening in a
fixed interval of time.

Questions:
1. Tickets numbered 1 to 20 are mixed up then a ticket is drawn at random. What is
the probability that the ticket drawn has a number which is a multiple of 3 or 5?
1 2 8 9
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 5 15 20

2. A bag contains 2 red, 3 green and 2 blue balls. Two balls are drawn at random.
What is the probability that none of the balls drawn is blue?
10 11 2 5
(a) (b) (c) (d)
21 21 7 7
3. In a box, there are 8 red, 7 blue and 6 green balls. One ball is picked up randomly.
What is the probability that it is neither red nor green?
1 3 7 8
(a) (b) (c) (d)
3 4 19 21

4. What is the probability of getting a sum 9 from two throws of a dice?

1 1 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
6 8 9 10

5. Three unbiased coins are tossed. What is the probability of getting at most two
heads?
3 1 3 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
4 4 8 8

6. Two dice are thrown simultaneously. What is the probability of getting two
numbers whose product is even?
1 3 3 5
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 4 8 16

7. In a class, there are 15 boys and 10 girls. Three students are selected at random.
The probability that 1 girl and 2 boys are selected, is:
21 25 1 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
46 117 50 25

8. In a lottery, there are 10 prizes and 2 blanks. A lottery is drawn at random. What is
the probability of getting a prize?
1 2 2 5
(a) (b) (c) (d)
10 5 7 7

9. From a pack of 52 cards, two cards are drawn together at random. What is the
probability of both the cards being kings?
1 25 35 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
15 57 256 221

10. Two dice are tossed. The probability that the total score is a prime number is:
1 5 1 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
6 12 2 9

11. A card is drawn from a pack of 52 cards. The probability of getting a queen of club
or a king of heart is:
1 2 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
13 13 26 52
12. A bag contains 4 white, 5 red and 6 blue balls. Three balls are drawn at random
from the bag. The probability that all of them are red is:
1 3 2 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
22 23 91 77

13. Two cards are drawn together from a pack of 52 cards. The probability that one is
a spade and one is a heart is:
3 29 47 13
(a) (b) (c) (d)
20 34 100 102

14. One card is drawn at random from a pack of 52 cards. What is the probability that
the card drawn is a face card?
1 3 1 9
(a) (b) (c) (d)
13 13 4 52

15. A bag contains 6 black and 8 white balls. One ball is drawn at random. What is the
probability that the ball drawn is white?
3 4 1 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
4 7 8 7

1 1 1
16. A problem is given to three students whose chances of solving it are , and
2 3 4
respectively. What is the probability that the problem will be solved?
1 1 3 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
4 2 4 12

17. A bag contains 6 white and 4 black balls. 2 balls are drawn at random. Find the
probability that they are of same colour.
1 7 8 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 15 15 9

18. Two cards are drawn at random from a pack of 52 cards. What is the probability
that either both are black or both are queen?
52 55 55 19
(a) (b) (c) (d)
221 190 221 221

19. A bag contains 4 white, 5 red and 6 blue balls. Three balls are drawn at random
from the bag. The probability that all of them are red is:
2 1 3 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
91 22 22 77
20. In a lottery, there are 10 prizes and 25 blanks. A lottery is drawn at random. What
is the probability of getting a prize?
2 5 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
7 7 5 2

21. A man and his wife appear in an interview for two vacancies in the same post. The
1 1
probability of husband’s selection is and the probability of wife’s selection is .
7 5
What is the probability that one of them is selected?
2 1 3 4
(a) (b) (c) (d)
7 7 4 5

22. From a pack of 52 cards, two cards are drawn together at random. What is the
probability of both the cards being king?
1 1 25 35
(a) (b) (c) (d)
15 221 57 256

23. In a box, there are 8 red, 7 blue and 6 green balls. One ball is picked up randomly.
What is the probability that it is neither red nor green?
1 3 8 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
3 5 21 22

24. One card is drawn at random from a pack of 52 cards. What is the probability that
the card drawn is a face card?
3 1 3 9
(a) (b) (c) (d)
13 13 52 52

25. Two cards are drawn together from a pack of 52 cards. The probability that one is
spade and one is a heart is:
3 29 47 13
(a) (b) (c) (d)
20 34 100 102

26. Three unbiased coins are tossed. What is the probability of getting at most two
heads?
3 7 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
4 8 2 4

27. What is the probability of getting a sum 9 from two throws of a dice?
1 3 1 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 4 9 9
28. Three unbiased coins are tossed. What is the probability of getting at least 2
heads?
1 1 3 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
4 2 4 3

29. In a class, 30% of the students offered English, 20% offered Hindi and 10% offered
both. If a student is selected at random, what is the probability that he has offered
English or Hindi?
1 3 4 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 4 5 5

30. A basket contains 10 apples and 20 oranges out of which 3 apples and 5 oranges
are defective. If we choose two fruits at random, what is the probability that either
both are oranges or both are non defective?
136 17 316 158
(a) (b) (c) (d)
345 87 435 435

31. In a class, there are 15 boys and 10 girls. Three students are selected at random.
The probability that 1 girl and 2 boys are selected is:
21 1 3 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
46 5 25 50

32. A card is drawn from a pack of 52 cards. The probability of getting a queen of club
or a king of heart is:
2 1 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
13 13 26 52

33. Two dice are thrown together. What is the probability that the sum of the number
on the two faces is divided by 4 or 6?
7 2 4 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
18 7 9 5

34. I forgot the last digit of a 7-digit telephone number. If I randomly dial the final 3
digits after correctly dialing the first four, then what is the chance of dialing the
correct number?
1 1 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
999 1001 1000 998
35. A round archery target of diameter 0.8m is marked with four scoring regions from
the centre outwards as red, blue, yellow and white. The radius of the red band is
0.20m. The width of all the remaining bands is equal. If archers throw arrows
towards the target, what is the probability that the arrows fall in the red region of
the archery target?
(a) 0.40 (b) 0.25 (c) 0.16 (d) 0.80

36. A bag contains 20 balls. 8 balls are green, 7 are white and 5 are red. What is the
minimum number of balls that must be picked up from the bag blindfolded
(without replacing any of it) to be assured of picking at least one ball of each
colour?
(a) 17 (b) 16 (c) 13 (d) 11

37. A bag contains 15 red balls and 20 black balls. Each ball is numbered either 1 or 2
or 3. 20% of the red balls are numbered 1 and 40% of them are numbered 3.
Similarly, among the black balls, 45% are numbered 2 and 30% are numbered 3. A
boy picks a ball at random. He wins if the ball is red and numbered 3 or if it is
black and numbered 1 or 2. What are the chances of his winning?
1 4 5 12
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 7 9 13

1
38. Two brothers X and Y appeared for an exam. The probability of selection of X is
7
2
and that of B is . Find the probability that both of them are selected.
9
1 2 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
63 63 14 9

39. Four dice are thrown simultaneously. Find the probability that all of them show
the same face.
1 1 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
216 36 108 54

40. A box contains 10 bulbs, of which just three are defective. If a random sample of
five bulbs is drawn, find the probability that the sample contains exactly one
defective bulb.
5 7 3 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
12 12 14 12

41. What is the probability of getting 53 Mondays in a leap year?

1 2 3 4
(a) (b) (c) (d)
7 7 7 7
42. A speaks truth in 75% of cases and B in 80% of cases. What is the probability that
they likely to contradict each other, narrating the same incident?
3 7 9 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
10 20 20 2

43. A bag contains 50 tickets numbered 1, 2, 3, 4…50 of which five are drawn at
random and arranged in ascending order of magnitude. Find the probability that
third drawn ticket is equal to 30.
551 1 552 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
15, 134 2 15,379 9

44. From a pack of 52 cards, 3 cards are drawn. What is the probability that one is
ace, one is queen and one is jack?
19 16 17 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
5525 5525 5525 5525

45. In a race, the odd favor of cars P, Q, R, S are 1:3, 1:4, 1:5 and 1:6 respectively.
Find the probability that one of them wins the race.
319 27 114 231
(a) (b) (c) (d)
420 111 121 420

46. A bag contains 4 red and 3 black balls. A second bag contains 2 red and 4 black
balls. One bag is selected at random. From the selected bag, one ball is drawn.
Find the probability that the ball drawn is red.
23 19 7 16
(a) (b) (c) (d)
42 42 32 39

47. There are four hotels in a town. If 3 men check into the hotels in a day then what is
the probability that each checks into a different hotel?
1 3 4 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 4 7 8

48. In a simultaneous throw of pair of dice. Find the probability of getting the total
more than 7.
1 5 7 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 12 15 12
49. A word consists of 9 letters; 5 consonants and 4 vowels. Three letters are chosen
at random. What is the probability that more than one vowel will be selected?
13 17 5 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
42 42 42 14

50. A bag contains 2 red, 3 green and 2 blue balls. Two balls are drawn at random.
What is the probability that none of the balls drawn is blue?
10 11 1 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
21 21 2 7

51. If two letters are taken at random from the word HOME, what is the probability that
none of the letters would be vowels?
1 1 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
6 2 3 4

52. An urn contains 4 white, 6 black and 8 red balls. If 3 balls are drawn one by one
without replacement, find the probability of getting all white balls.
5 1 13 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
204 204 204 204

53. A letter is taken out at random from “ASSISTANT” and another is taken out from
“STATISTICS”. The probability that they are the same letter is:
35 19 19 25
(a) (b) (c) (d)
96 90 96 96

54. Out of 17 applicants 8 boys and 9 girls. Two persons are to be selected for the job.
Find the probability that at least one of the selected persons will be a girl.
19 5 20 27
(a) (b) (c) (d)
34 14 34 34

55. In a single throw of two dice, find the probability that neither a doublet nor a total
of 8 will appear.
7 5 13 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
15 18 18 16

56. Two dice are thrown simultaneously. What is the probability of getting two
numbers whose product is even?
3 3 5 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
4 8 16 7
57. What is the probability of getting at least one six in a single throw of three
unbiased dice?
1 91 13 43
(a) (b) (c) (d)
36 256 256 256

58. Three houses are available in a locality. Three persons apply for the houses. Each
applies for one house without consulting others. The probability that all the three
apply for the same house is:
2 1 8 7
(a) (b) (c) (d)
9 9 9 9

59. An unbiased die is rolled. Find the probability of getting a multiple of 3.

1 1 3 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
3 2 4 5

60. If two dice are thrown together, the probability of getting an even number on one
die and an odd number on the other is:
(a) 1 1 (c) 0 3
(b) (d)
2 5