PROBABILITY (COMBINATORICS BASED PROBLEM) M AM

1. There are m persons sitting in a row. Two of these are selected at random. The
probability that the two selected persons are not together is
1 2 2 m(m + 1)
(A) (B) 1 - (C) 1 - (D)
m +1 m m +1 (m − 1)(m − 2)

2. A bag has 13 red, 14 green and 15 black balls. The probability of getting exactly
2 blacks on pulling out 4 balls is p1. Now the number of each colour ball is
doubled and 8 balls are pulled out. The probability of getting exactly 4 blacks is
p2. Then
(A) p1 < p2 (B) p1 = p2
(C) p1 > p2 (D) p1 + p2 =1

3. On a chess-board if two squares are chosen, the probability that they have a side
in common is
1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) none of these
9 18 27

4. A butterfly randomly lands on one of the six squares of the T-

shaped figure shown and then randomly moves to an adjacent G
square. The probability that the butterfly ends up on the R
Y W R B
square is
(A) ¼ (B) 1/3 (C) 2/3 (D) 1/6 O

5. An unbaised cubic die marked with 1,2,2,3,3,3 is rolled 3 times. The probability of
getting a total score of 4 or 6 is
(A) 16/216 (B) 50/216 (C) 60/216 (D) none of these

6. If a,b and c are three numbers (not necessarily different) chosen randomly and
with replacement from the set {1,2,3,4,5}, the probability that ( ab + c ) is even, is
(A) 50/125 (B) 59/125 (C) 64/125 (D) 75/125
7. Three numbers are chosen at random without replacement from {1, 2, 3 15}.
The probability that minimum of these chosen numbers is 5 is;
(A) 9/91 (B) 45/91 (C) 7/91 (D) none of these.

8. Three numbers are chosen at random without replacement from {1,2,3,…….10}.

The probability that the minimum of the chosen numbers is 3 or their maximum is
7 is
(A) ½ (B) 1/3 (C) 1/4 (D) 11/40

9. The number ‘a’ is randomly selected from the set 0,1,2,3,...........98,99 . The
number ‘b’ is selected from the same set. Probability that the number 3a + 7b has
a digit equal to 8 at the units place, is
(A) 1/16 (B) 2/16 (C) 4/16 (D) 3/16

10. Three of the six vertices of a regular hexagon are chosen at random. The
probability that the triangle with three vertices is equilateral equals to
1 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) D)
2 5 10 20

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 PROBABILITY (COMBINATORICS BASED PROBLEM) M AM

11. If the letters of word ATTEMPT are written down at random, chance that all Ts
are consecutive is
1 6 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) none of these
42 7 7

12. Seven white balls and three black balls are randomly placed in a row. The
probability that no two balls are placed adjacently equals
1 7 2 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2 15 15 3

13. Consider the set of all possible function f defined from the set { 1, 2, 3} into the
set {1 2, 3, 4, 5}. A function is selected at random from this set, then probability
that the function satisfy
f(i)  f(j)  i < j is equal to
35 30 50 60
(A) 3
(B) 3
(C) 3
(D)
5 5 5 53

14. The probability of occurrence of a multiple of 2 on a dice and a multiple of 3 on

the other disce of both are thrown together is
7 1 11 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
26 3 36 4

15. The letter of the word ‘PROBABILITY’ are written down at random in a row. Let
E1 denotes the event that two I’s are together and E 2 denotes the event that two
B’s are together. Then P[E1  E2] is . . . . . .

16. A natural number x is randomly selected from the set of first 100 natural
100
numbers. Find the probability that it satisfies the inequality. x +  50 .
x

17. A ten digit number is formed using the digits from zero to nine, every digit being
used exactly once. Find the probability that the number is divisible by 4.

18. Four small squares, on a chessboard are selected at random. The probability
that they form a square of size 2  2 is equal to . . . . . .

19. The letters of the word ‘ASSASSIN’ are written down at random in a row. The
probability that no two S occur together is equal to . . . . . .

20 Let  be a complex cube root of unity with   1. A fair die is thrown three times.
If r1,r2 and r3 are the numbers obtained on the die, then the probability that
r1 + r2 + r3 = 0 is
1 1 2 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
18 9 9 36

21. Suppose f(x) = x3 + ax2 + bx + c where a, b, c are chosen respectively by

throwing a dice three times. Find the probability that f(x) is an increasing function.

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 PROBABILITY (COMBINATORICS BASED PROBLEM) M AM

22. An unbiased die, with faces numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 is thrown n times and the
list of n numbers showing up is noted. Find the probability that among the
numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 only three numbers appear in the list.

23. A bag contains n white and n red balls. Pairs of balls are drawn without
replacement until the bag is empty. Show that the probability that each pair
2n
consists of one white and one red ball is 2n
.
Cn
24. Nine tokens numbered (1, 3, ……., 9) are equally distributed among three men.
Find the probability that sum of each player’s token is odd

25. A person while dialling a telephone no. forgets the last three digit but remembers
that exactly two of them are same. He dials the no. randomly. Find the probability
that the dialled no. is correct.

26. Alphabets of the word BANANA are arranged randomly. Find the probability the
word thus formed does not contain the pattern BAN.

27. Two six-sided dice are constructed such that each face is equally likely to show
up when rolled. The numbers on the faces of one of the dice are
. The numbers on the faces of the other die are .
Find the probability of rolling a sum of with these two dice.

28. A sequence of ten s and/or s is randomly generated. If the probability that the

sequence does not contain two consecutives s can be written in the form , where
are relatively prime positive integers, find .

29. Two number x and y are chosen at random from the set 1,2,3,......3n . Find the
probability that x2 − y2 is divisible by 3.

30. Word are formed using all the letters of the word “CANARDS”. A word is selected
from these words randomly. What is the probability that this word contains neither
the pattern “CAN” nor “RAD”.
ANSWER:

3
15. 17. C 18. 7/90687 19.1/14 20.18/55 21 .4/9 22.
23
(3n − 3  2n + 3) 6C3
24. 3 25. 1 26. 4 27. ¼ 28. 73 29.
6n 14 270 5
5n − 3
3 ( 3n − 1)
***

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