EPITA Math Test

Bachelor Typical exercises

Math test for the Bachelor cursus
Program and typical exercises

The purpose of the interview is to check that the students have the mathematical knowledge and practice
adapted for the cursus at EPITA. We won't try to detect exhaustive mathematicians, we will only try to
make sure that they has a good chance to succeed if they join the Bachelor cursus.
Pocket calculators are not allowed during the test and will anyway not be useful.
The program is made of 7 topics. We know that the candidates followed various cursus in the past, so
they may have skills in only a part of these topics. That's why, at the beginning of the test, we will show
the list of topics to the candidates and propose them to remove 2 of them. Then we will ask them to
solve a few exercises (typically 2 exercises) about some of the remaining topics.
The 7 topics are :
 Derivatives
 Integrals
 Numerical sequences
 Limits
 Logarithm and exponential
 Function domains
 Probability
For each of these topics, we give below the basic knowledge that the students are expected to have, and
some typical exercises that we can ask.
1 Derivatives
The students are expected to know the derivatives of the usual functions :
, x, √ , ln(x), e , cos(x) and sin(x)
n 1 √ 1 x
x , n
x x
Furthermore, the exercises consist in calculating the derivatives of some composed functions. The chain
rule for this is reminded at the beginning of each exercise :
h
i0
= u0 v(x) × v 0 (x)


u v(x)

Then the students are asked to use this rule to give the derivative of some functions.
Example 1. Give the derivatives of the following functions f and g :
√
f (x) = x2 √
+1


g(x) = sin x2 + 1

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Bachelor Typical exercises
Example 2. Give the derivatives of the following functions f and g :
f (x) sin2 (x) + 1
= q
g(x) = sin2 (x) + 1

2 Integrals
The students are expected to know the primitives of usual functions :
, x, √ , e , cos(x) and sin(x)
1 √ 1 n x
x , n
x x
They are also expected to detect the derivative of a composed function : they should hence be able to
integrate such functions :
, cos(2x) and sin(2x)
0 0
0 n u (x) p u (x) 0 0 u(x)
u (x) × u (x), , u (x) u(x), p
n
, u (x)e
u (x) u(x)

Some questions require integration by parts. The formula is reminded at the beginning of the exercise :
f (x)g (x) dx = f (x)g(x) − f (x)g(x) dx
Z b Z b
  0 b 0
a
a a

A typical exercise consists in the computation of two integrals, one of them requiring integration by parts.
Example. Compute the following integrals :
dx
Z 1
x
I = 2
x +1 0

d using integration by parts

Z π
J = x cos(x) x
0

3 Numerical sequences
The students should know the basic formulas about arithmetic and geometric sequences, such as the value
of u and of u + u + · · · + u when (u ) is an arithmetic (or geometric) sequence.
n 0 1 n n

Example 1. Let (u ) be the sequence dened by

n

u0 = −2
∀n ∈ N, un+1 = 5un

1. What is u ? 35

2. What is u + u + · · · + u ?
25 26 35

Example 2. Same exercise if (u ) is an arithmetic sequence of common dierence r = 5.

n

Another typical exercise may deal with an arithmetico-geometric sequence :

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Bachelor Typical exercises
Example 3. Let (u ) be dened by
n

u0 = 1
∀n ∈ N, un+1 = 3un − 4

and let (v ) = (u ) − 2.
n n

1. Prove that (v ) is geometric.

n

2. Deduce v and u as functions of n.

n n

4 Limits
The students should be able to nd the limits of rational fractions in ±∞ or in 0.
It will good to know that for any n > 0,
= 0 and
x
ln(x) e
lim n
lim = +∞ n
x→+∞ x x
x→+∞

but this result will be reminded if necessary.

Typical exercises will be :
Example. Compute the three following limits :
x4 − 3x2 + 1 ln(x) x4 − 3 ln(x) + 1
lim , lim , lim
x→+∞ x4 + 2 x→+∞ x4 x→+∞ x4 + 2

5 Logarithm and exponential

The students are expected to know the basic formulas, such that
ln(a) + ln(b) = ?
ea+b = ?

They are also expected to know the shape of the graphs of the two functions x → ln(x) and x → e and x

the values of x for which these functions are dened.

Example. Solve in R the following equation :
ln(x + 2) + ln(x − 1) = ln(4x + 2)

6 Function domains
The typical exercises consist in computing the domain of a given function f . This means that the students
will be asked to give the set of all the values of x for which f (x) exists.
Example 1. What is the domain of the following function :
s
x2 − 3x + 1
f (x) =
x2 − 5x + 6

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Bachelor Typical exercises
Example 2. What is the domain of the following function :
f (x) = ln(x2 − 1)

7 Probabilities
The candidates are expected to have knowledge about :
 What a probability distribution is.
 Conditional probability.
 Bayes formula for the inversion of a conditional probability.
A typical exercises will be :
Exercise. Helen and Thomas are training for shooting with the bow.
 When Helen shoots, she succeeds 9 time over 10 in reaching the target.
 When Thomas shoots, he only succeeds 3 times over 10.
 Helen shoots 1 time over 3, Thomas shoots 2 times over 3.
Questions :
1. What is the probability that the target is reached?
2. One of the two has just shot and reached the target. What is the probability that the shoot has
been done by Thomas?