Probability Sankalp Sheet

General Problems of Probability (based on counting i.e. Permutations & Combinations)

Level-1
1. Two dice are thrown at a time .Find the probability of the following-
(i) these numbers shown are equal;
(ii) the difference of numbers shown is 1.

2. If a card is drawn from a pack of 52 cards then find the odds in favour of the event that it is a card of
a queen.

3. 5 cards are drawn from a pack of 52 cards what is the probability that these 5 will contain just one king?

4. Find the probability that a leap year will not have 53 Mondays.

5. Two red counters, three green counters and 4 blue counters are placed in a row in random order. Find the
probability that no two blue counters are adjacent.

6. Players A and B alternately toss a biased coin, with A going first. A wins if A tosses a Tail before B tosses a
Head; otherwise B wins. If the probability of a head is p, find the value of p for which the game is fair to
both players.

7. In throwing a pair of fair dice, find the probability of getting a total of 8.

8. A four digit number is formed using the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 without repetition. Find the probability that it is divisible
by 4

9. If m things are distributed among 'a' men and 'b' women, show that the probability that the number of
1  (b  a)m  (b  a)m 
things received by men is odd, is 2  (b  a)m

 

10. Mr. A lives at origin on the cartesian plane and has his office at (4, 5). His friend lives at (2, 3) on the same
plane. Mr. A can go to his office travelling one block at a time either in the + y or + x direction. If all possible
paths are equally likely then find the probability that Mr. A passed his friends house.

Level-2
1. From the points from an 4  5 array of equally spaced points (as shown below) three points are
randomly chosen. What is the probability that the chosen points form a non-degenerate triangle (i.e.
triangles with non zero area) ?

2. If ‘a’ is the result of tossing a black die and ‘b’ is result of tossing a white die then what is the
probability that there exists real numbers x, y & z such that x + y + z = a & xy + yz + zx = b.

3. Nine numbers 1, 2, 3, ......, 9 are arranged in a rectangular array of matrix of order 3 so that each number
occur exactly once. Find the probability that the sum of the numbers in atleast one horizontal row is greater
than 21.

4. A pair of students is selected at random from a probability class. The probability that the pair selected will

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10
consist of one male and one female student is . Find the maximum number of students the class can
19
contain.

5. Five distinct numbers from the set {1, 2, 3, ..... 17} are chosen randomly. Find the probability that their sum
is divisible by 3.
m
6. Suppose that there are 5 red points and 4 blue points on a circle. Let be the probability that a convex
n
polygon whose vertices are among the 9 points has at least one blue vertex where m and n are relatively
prime. Find (m + n).

7. m red socks and n blue socks (m > n) in a cupboard are well mixed up, where m + n  101. If two socks
are taken out at random, the chance that they have the same colour is 1/2. Find the largest value of m.

8. Nine tiles are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 respectively. Each of the three players A, B and C randomly
selects 3 tiles and they sum up those three values as marked on the tiles. The probability that all three players
m
obtain an odd sum is , where m and n are relatively prime positive integers.
n
Compute the value of (m + n).

9. A is a set containing ‘n’, elements. A subset P of A is cosen at random. The set A is reconstructed by replacing
the elements of P. A subset Q of A is chosen again at random. Find the probability that
(i) P & Q have the same number of elements.
(ii) The number of elements in P is more than the number of elements in Q.
(iii) The number of elements in P is just one more than the number of elements in Q
(iv) Q is a subset of P.
b
(v) P  Q contains exactly r elements 1  r  n . g
10. Four people sit round a circular table, and each person will roll a normal six sided die once.
N
The probability that no two people sitting next to each other will roll the same number is .
1296
Find the value of N.
Answers
Level-1
1 5 3243 5 5 1 5
1. & 2. 1 : 12 3. 4. 5/7 5. 6. 7.
6 18 10829 42 2 36

5 10
8. 10.
16 21
Level-2
1033
1. 88 / 95 2. 7/12 3. 1/7 4. 20 5. 6. 458
3094
2n
Cn 1 2 nC n 2n
C n 1
7. 55 8. 17; probability = 3/14 9. (i) (ii)  (iii)
22 n 2 2 2 n 1 2 2n

FG 3 IJ n n
C r 3r
(iv) 4 H K (v)
4n
10. 630

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Problem based on – P(A  B) = P(A) + P(B) – P (A  B)

P(A  B  C) = P(A) - P(A  B) + P(A  B  C), inclusion and exclusion principal

Level-1
1. Three coins are tossed. Describe
(i) two events A and B which are mutually exclusive
(ii) three events A, B and C which are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
(iii) two events A and B which are not mutually exclusive.
(iv) two events A and B which are mutually exclusive but not exhaustive.
(v) three events A, B and C which are mutually exclusive but not exhaustive.
2. The probability that atleast one of the events A and B happens is 0.6. If probability of their simulta-
neous happening is 0.2, then find the value of P ( A) + P (B) .

3. One digit is selected from 20 positive integers. What is the probability that it is divisible by
3 or 4.

4. A bag contains 6 white, 5 black and 4 red balls. Find the probability of getting either a white
or a black ball in a single draw.

5. For any two events A and B

7 1 C 5
Let P(A  B)  ; P(A  B)  and P(A )  .
8 4 8

A
Find P(A).P(B) and P   i.e. (P(A  BC ))
B

3 1 1
6. If A and B are any two events with P(A)  ; P(B)  and P(A  B)  . Find
8 2 4

(i) P(A  B) (ii) P(A C ) and P(BC ) (iii) P(A C  BC )

(iv) P(A C  BC ) (v) P(A  BC ) (vi) P(B  A C )

7. A bag contains 4 white, 3red and 4 green balls. A ball is drawn at random. Find the probability of the event ‘the
ball drawn is white or green’.

8. In throwing of a die, let A be the event ‘an odd number turns up’, B be the event ‘a number divisible by
3 turns up’ and C be the event ‘a number  4 turns up’. Then find the probability that exactly two of A,
B and C occur.

9. 
If P(A) = 0.25, P(B) = 0.5 and P(A  B) = 0.14, find probability that neither ‘A’ nor ‘B’ occurs. Also find P A  B 
10. The probability that at least one of A and B occurs is 0.6. If A and B occur simultaneously with probability
0.3, then find the value of P( A)  P( B) .
Level-2
1. Let A, B, C be three events. If the probability of occurring exactly one event out of A and B is 1 – a, out of B and
C is 1 – 2a, out of C and A is 1–a and that of occurring three events simultaneously is a2, then prove that the
probability that at least one out of A, B, C will occur is greater than 1/2.

2. A basket contains 20 apples and 10 oranges out of which 5 apples and 3 oranges are defective. If a

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person takes out 2 fruits at random, what is the probability that either both are apple or both are
good?

3. For the three events A, B and C, P(exactly one of the events A or B occurs) = P(exactly one of the event B
or C occurs) = P(exactly one of the events C and A occurs = p and P(all three events occur simultaneously)
= p2, where 0 < p < ½ . Then, find the probability of occurrence of at least on of the three events A,
B and C

4. The probabilities that a student pass in mathematics, Physics and Chemistry are m, p and c respectively. Of
these subjects a student has a 75% chance of passing in at least one, a 50% chance of passing in at least two
and a 40% chance of passing in exactly two. Find the value of p + m + c.

5. From the set S = {1, 2, 3, . . . 3n}, three numbers are chosen at random. Find the probability that the
sum of the chosen numbers is divisible by 3.

6. For any two events A and B, prove that P  A  B   P  A   P  A  B   P  A   P  B  . Let A and B be

two events such that P(A) = 34 and P(B) = 58 . Show that

3 3 5 1 3
(i) P  A  B  (ii)  P  A  B  (iii)  P  A  B  .
4 8 8 8 8

7. Three numbers are chosen at random without replacement from {1, 2, 3,...., 10}. Find the probability that
the minimum of the chosen numbers is 3 or their maximum is 7.
Answers
Level-1
1. (i) A : “getting at least two heads” B : “getting at least two tails”
(ii) A : “getting at most one heads” B : “getting exactly two heads”
C : “getting exactly three heads”
(iii) A : “getting at most two tails” B : “getting exactly two heads”
(iv) A : “getting exactly one head” B : “getting exactly two heads”
(v) A : “ getting exactly one tail” B : “getting exactly two tails”
C : “getting exactly three tails”
[Note : There may be other cases also]
3 3 1
2. 1.2 3. 1/2 4. 11/15 5. ; ;
8 4 8

5 5 1 3 3 1 1 8 1
6. (i) ; (ii) & ; (iii) ; (iv) ; (v) ; (vi) 7. 8.
8 8 2 8 4 8 4 11 6
9. 0.39 & 0.11 10. 1.1

Level-2

316 3 p  2 p2 27 3.n C3  n 3
2. 3. 4. 5. 3n .
435 2 20 C3
11
7.
40

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INDEPENDENT EVENTS,
PAIRWISE AND MUTUAL INDEPENDENCE.
LEVEL-1

1. Three coins are tossed together. What is the probability of getting tail on first, head on second and tail
on third coin?

2. The odds that a book will be favorably reviewed by three independent crities are 5 to 2, 4 to 3, and 3 to 4
respectively : what is the probability that of the three reviews a majority will be favourable?
1 1
3. Probabilities of solving a specific problem independently by A and B are and respectively. If both try to
2 3
solve the problem independently, find the probability that
(i) the problem is solved (ii) exactly one of them solves the problem.

4. If the probability for A to fail in an examination is 0.2 and that of B to fail is 0.3, then find the probability
that either A or B fails.

5. In drawing two balls from a box containing 6 red and 4 white balls without replacement, which of the following
pairs is independent ?
(a) Red on first draw and red on second draw
(b) Red on first draw and white on second draw

6. A pair of fair coins is tossed yielding the equiprobable space S = {HH, HT, TH, TT}. Consider the events:
A = {head on first toss} = {HH, HT}, B = {head on second toss} = {HH, TH}
C = {head on exactly one coin} = {HT, TH}
Then check whether A, B, C are independent or not.

7. There are three urns A, B and C.Urn A contains 4 white balls and 5 blue balls. Urn B contains 4 white
balls and 3 blue balls. Urn C contains 2 white balls and 4 blue balls. One ball is drawn from each of these
urns. What is the probability that out of these three balls drawn, two are white balls and one is a blue
ball?

8. A student appears for tests I, II and III. The student is successful if he passes either in tests I and II or test
I and III. The probabilities of the student passing in tests I, II, III are p, q and 1/2 respectively. If the
probability that the student is successful is 1/2 then find the relation between p and q.

9. A coin is tossed m + n times (m > n). Show that the probability of at least m consecutive heads come up
n2
is
2m  2

10. If two switches S1 and S2 have respectively 90% and 80% chances of working. Find the probabilities that each
of the following circuits will work.

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Probability Sankalp Sheet
LEVEL-2
1. A lot contains 50 defective and 50 non-defective bulbs. Two bulbs are drawn at random, one at a time,
with replacement. The events A, B, C are defined as
(i) A = {the first bulb is defective},
(ii) B= {the second bulb is non-defective} and
(iii) C= {the two bulbs are both defective or both non-defective}.
Determine
(a) Whether A, B, C are pair wise independent, and
(b) Whether A, B, C are independent.

2. To pass a test a child has to perform successfully in two consecutive tasks, one easy and one hard task. The
easy task he can perform successfully with probability 'e' and the hard task he can perfrom successfully with
probability 'h', where h < e. He is allowed 3 attempts, either in the order (Easy, Hard, Easy) (option A) or
in the order (Hard, Easy, Hard) (option B) whatever may be the order, he must be successful twice in a row.
Assuming that his attempts are independent, in what order he choses to take the tasks, in order to maximise
his probability of passing the test.

3. An aircraft gun can take a maximum of four shots at an enemy’s plane moving away from it. The probability
of hitting the plane at first, second, third & fourth shots are 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 & 0.1 respectively. What is the
probability that the gun hits the plane .

4. A game is played with a special fair cubic die which has one red side, two blue sides, and three green sides.
The result is the colour of the top side after the die has been rolled. If the die is rolled repeatedly, the
probability that the second blue result occurs on or before the tenth roll, can be expressed in the form
3p  2 q
r where p, q, r are positive integers, find the value of p2 + q2 + r2.
3

5. Consider the following events for a family with children

A = {of both the genders} ; B = {at most one boy}
In which of the following (are/is) the events A and B are independent.
(a) if a family has 3 children (b) if a family has 2 children
Assume that the birth of a boy or a girl is equally likely mutually exclusive and exhaustive.

6. A player tosses an unbiased coin and is to score two points for every head turned up and one point for every
tail turned up. If Pn denotes the probability that his score is exactly n points, prove that
1
Pn – Pn – 1 = (P – Pn – 1 ) n> 3
2 n–2
Also compute P1 and P2 and hence deduce the pr that he scores exactly 4.

7. The probabilities that three men hit a target are, respectively, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.4. Each fires once at the target.
(As usual, assume that the three events that each hits the target are independent)
(a) Find the probability that they all : (i) hit the target ; (ii) miss the target
(b) Find the probability that the target is hit : (i) at least once, (ii) exactly once.
(c) If only one hits the target, what is the probability that it was the first man?

8. Of the three independent events E1, E2 and E3 the probability that only E1 occurs is  , only E2 occurs is  and
only E3 occurs is  . Let the probability p that none of events E1, E2, or E3 occurs satisfy the equations

   2  p   and    3   p  2 . All the given probabilities are assumed to lie in the interval (0, 1).

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Probability Sankalp Sheet

Pr obability of occurrence of E1
Then 
Pr obability of occurrence of E3

9. In a tournament, team X, plays with each of the 6 other teams once. For each match the probabilities of a
win, draw and loss are equal. Find the probability that the team X, finishes with more wins than losses.

10. Cards are dealt one by one from a well shuffled pack of 52 cards. Find the probability that exactly n cards
are dealt before the first ace appears. If the cards are drawn further, then find the probability that exactly
k cards are dealt in all before the second ace. What will be the probability if exactly one ace appears in at
most k cards.

Answers

Level-1
2 1
1. 1/8 2. 209/343 3. (i) (ii) 4. 0.44 5. both are NOT independent
3 2
18 49
6. not independent 7. 64/189 8. p (1+q) = 1 10. &
25 50

Level-2
1. yes & no 2. Option B 3. 0.6976 4. 283
5. Independent in (a) and not independent in (b) 6. P1 = 1/2 , P2 = 3/4
98
7. (a) 6%, 21% ; (b) 79%, 44%, (c) 9/44 » 20.45% 8. 6 9.
243
(51  n)(50  n)(49  n) (51  k)(50  k) [k (51  k) (50  k)
10. ; (17 13  49  50) (13 17  49  50)
(13  51  50  49)

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Probability Sankalp Sheet

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Probability Sankalp Sheet
BERNOULI’S TRIALS, BINOMIAL PROBABILITY THEOREM.

Level-1
1. In an examination of 10 multiple choice questions (1 or more can be correct out of 4 options). A student decides
to mark the answers at random. Find the probability that he gets exactly two questions correct.

2. A coin is tossed n times, what is the chance that the head will present itself an odd number of times?

3. Two dice are tossed four times find the probability of getting
(i) equal digits exactly two times
(ii) equal digits at least two times
(iii) equal digits at the most two times

4. Two persons A and B get together once a week to play a game. They always play 4 games. From past
experience Mr. A wins 2 of the 4 games just as often as he wins 3 of the 4 games. If Mr. A does not always
wins or always loose, then find the probability that Mr. A wins any one game. (Given the probabilityof A's
wining a game is a non-zero constant less than one).

5. A coin that comes up head with probability p > 0 and tails with probability 1 – p > 0 independently on each
1
flip, is flipped eight times. Suppose the probability of three heads and five tails is equal to of the
25
m
probability of five heads and three tails. Let p = , where m and n are relative prime positive integers. Find
n
the value of (m + n).

6. A pair of dice is thrown 4 times. If getting ‘a total of 9’ in a single throw is considered as a success then find
the probability of getting ‘a total of 9’ thrice.

7. In an examination of 10 multiple choice questions (1 or more can be correct out of 4 options). A student
decides to mark the answers at random. Find the probability that he gets exactly two questions correct.

8. The probability that a bulb produced by a factory will fuse after an year of use is 0.1. Find the probability
that out of 4 such bulbs
(i) None (ii) more than 3 (iii) not more than 3,
will fuse after an year of use.

9. In ten trials of an experiment, if the probability of getting '4 successes’ is maximum, then show that
3
probability of failure in each trial can be equal to .
5

10. An unbiased coin is tossed 6 times. Find the probability that 3rd head appears on the 6th trial.

Level-2
1. A card is drawn & replaced in an ordinary pack of 52 playing cards. Find the minimum number of times
must a card be drawn so that there is atleast an even chance of drawing a heart.

2. A person flips 4 fair coins and discards those which turn up tails. He again flips the remaining coin and then
discards those which turn up tails. Find the probability that he discards atleast 3 coins.

3. A bomber wants to destroy a bridge. Two bombs are sufficient to destroy it.

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Probability Sankalp Sheet
If four bombs are dropped, what is the probability that it is destroyed, if the chance of a bomb hitting the
target is 0.4.

4. Find the minimum number of times a fair coin needs to be tossed, so that probability of getting at least two
heads is at least 0.96.

5. The probability that a radar will detect an object in one cycle is p. Find the probability that the object will be
detected in n cycles [Ans: 1  (1  p)n]

Answers
Level-1
(14)8 25 171 1275
1. 10C2 . 10 2. 1/2 3. , , 4. 0.6 5. 11
15 216 1296 1296
2 8
32  1   14  94 1 9999 5
6. 7. 10C2 ×   ×   8. (i) 4 (ii) 4 (iii) 10.
6561  15   15  10 10 10000 32

Level-2
189 328
1. 3 2. 3. 4. 8 5. 1  (1  p)n
256 625

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Probability Sankalp Sheet
BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION, VARIANCE & STANDARD DEVIATION
P(X  r)
1. If X is binomial v ariate with parameters n and p, where 0 < p <1 such that P ( X  n  r )
is independent of n and r, then find the value of p.

2. Let X denote the number of times heads occur in n tosses of a f air coin.
If P (X = 4), P (X = 5) and P (X = 6) are in AP; Find the value of n.

3. If X f ollows a binomial distribution with parameters n = 8 and p = 1/ 2,

then find value of P (| X – 4 | < 2).

4. A random variable has the following probability distribution-

X : 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
P(X): 0 2p 2p 3p p2 2p2 7p2 2p

Find the value of p.

5. A random variable X has the distribution-

X 2 3 4
P(X = x) 0.3 0.4 0.3
Find the variance of the distribution.

6. A random variable X has the probability distribution :

For the events E = {X is a prime number} and F= {X < 4}, find the probability P(E  F).

7. The mean and the variance of a binomial distribution are 4 and 2 respectively. Find the probability of 2 suc-
cesses.

8. A biased die is tossed and the respective probabilities for various faces to turn up are-

Face : 1 2 3 4 5 6
Probability: 0.1 0.24 0.19 0.18 0.15 0.14

If an even face has turned up, then find the probability that it is face 2 or face 4.

 1 9
9. In a binomial distribution B  n, p   , if the probability of at least one success is greater than or equal to ,
 4  10

1
then prove that n is greater than .
log10  log10 3
4

 1
10. Suppose X has a binomial distribution B  6,  , Show that X = 3 is the most likely outcome.
 2
11. A random variable X has the following probability distribution :

X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 2 2
P(X) 0 k 2k 2k 3k k 2k 7k + k

Determine
(i) k (ii) P(X < 3) (iii) P(X > 6) (iv) P(0 < X < 3)
[Hint : Use  P(X) = 1 to determine k, P(X < 3) = P(0) + P(1) + P(2), P(X > 6) = P(7) etc.]

12. A pair of dice is thrown 5 times. If getting a doublet is considered as a success, then find the mean and
variance of successes.

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Probability Sankalp Sheet

13. A pair of dice is thrown 4 times. If getting a total of 9 in a single throw is considered as a success then
find the mean and variance of successes.

14. Difference between mean and variance of a Binomial variate is ‘1’ and difference between their squares is ‘11’.
Find the probability of getting exactly three success

15. A random variable X has a probability distribution P(X) of the following form where k is some number:

 k, if x  0
 2k, if x  1

P(X)  
 3k, if x  2
0, otherwise

Determine (i) k (ii) P(X  2) (iii) P(X  2) (iv) P(x  2)

16. Two cards are drawn simultaneously (or successively without replacement) from a well-shuffled pack of 52
cards. Find the mean, variance and standard diviation of the number of kings.

 1
17. Suppose X has a binomial distribution B  6,  , Show that X = 3 is the most likely outcome.
 2
18. A box contains 2 red and 3 blue balls. Two balls are drawn successively. If getting ‘a red ball on first draw
and a blue ball on second draw’ is considered a success, then write the probability distribution of suc-
cesses. It is given that the above experiment is performed 3-times, with replacement

19. A coin is tossed 5-times. Find the mean and variance of the probability distribution of appearance of heads
on the tosses.

Answers
Level-1
119
1. 1/2 2. 7 3. 4. 1/10 5. 0.6 6. 0.77
128
28 5 25 4 32
7. 8. 0.75 9. D 12. & 13. &
256 6 36 9 81
3 33
 1 5 1 1 1
14. C3 ×   ×  
36
15. (i) (ii) (iii) 1 (iv)
6
  6 6 2 2
xi 0 1 2 3
2 2 400
16.   ;  ;   0.37 18.  19 
3
19 2
19 216
13 2873 pi   18 108
 25  253 253 253

19. mean = 2.5, variance = 1.25

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Probability Sankalp Sheet
CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY & TOTAL PROBABILITY
LEVEL-1
1. If P(A/B) = 0.2 and P(B) = 0.5 and P(A) = 0.2. Find P(A  B ).

2. 
If P(A) = 0.25, P(B) = 0.5 and P(A  B) = 0.14, find probability that neither ‘A’ nor ‘B’ occurs. Also find P A  B 
3. Let P (A) = 0.4 and P (B/A) = 0.5. Find the probability P ( A  B ).
4. A pair of dice is thrown. If 5 appears on at least one of the dice, then find the probability that the sum
is 10 or greater.

5. A pair of dice is thrown. If the two numbers appearing on them are different, find the probability that the
sum is 6.

6. Two dice are thrown together. If 3 appears on at least one of the dice, then what is the probability that
the sum is greater than 9.
7. In a certain town, 40% of the people have brown hair, 25% have brown eyes and 15% have both brown hair
and brown eyes. If a person selected at random has brown hair, then find the probability that he also has brown
eyes.
8. A bag contains 7 red and 3 black balls. Three balls are drawn at random from the bag one after the other.
Find the probability that the first two are red and the third is black.

9. Cards of an ordinary deck of playing cards are placed into two heaps. Heap - I consists of all the red cards and
heap - II consists of all the black cards. A heap is chosen at random and a card is drawn, find the probability that
the card drawn is a king.

LEVEL-2
1. In a class 30% students fail in English; 20% students fail in Hindi and 10% students fail in English and Hindi
both. A student is chosen at random, then what is the probability that he will fail in English if he has failed in Hindi
?

2. An ant is situated at the vertex A of the triangle ABC. Every movement of the ant consists of moving to one
of other two adjacent vertices from the vertex where it is situated. The probability of going to any of the
other two adjacent vertices of the triangle is equal. Find the probability that at the end of the fourth movement
the ant will be back to the vertex A.

3. There are 2 groups of subjects one of which consists of 5 science subjects & 3 engg. subjects & other
consists of 3 science & 5 engg. subjects . An unbiased die is cast . If the number 3 or 5 turns up a subject
is selected at random from first group, otherwise the subject is selected from 2nd group . Find the probability
that an engg. subject is selected.

4. There are 4 urns. The first urn contains 1 white & 1 black ball, the second urn contains 2 white & 3 black
balls, the third urn contains 3 white & 5 black balls & the fourth urn contains 4 white & 7 black balls. The

th i2  1
selection of each urn is not equally likely. The probability of selecting i urn is
34
(i = 1, 2, 3, 4). If we randomly select one of the urns & draw a ball, then the probability of ball being white
is p q where p and q  N are in their lowest form. Find (p + q).

5. An author writes a good book with a probability of 1/2. If it is good it is published with a probability of 2/
3. If it is not, it is published with a probability of 1/4. Find the probability that he will get atleast one book
published if he writes two.

SPP M L6 1
Probability Sankalp Sheet

6. P1, P2, . . . , P8 an eight players participating in a tournament. If i < j, then Pi will win the match against Pj.
Players are paired up randomly for first round and winners of this round again paired up for the second round and
so on. Find the probability that P4 reaches in the final.

8 1
7. An artillery target may be either at point A with probability or at point B with probability . We have 21 shells
9 9
each of which can be fixed either at point A or B. Each shell may hit the target independently of the other shell
1
with probability . How many shells must be fired at point A to hit the target with maximum probability..
2

8. In a college, 25% students failed in Mathematics, 15% students failed in Physics, and 10% students failed in
Mathematics and Physics. A student is selected at random :
(i) If he failed in Physics, then find the chance of his failure in mathematics,
(ii) If he failed in Mathematics, then find the chanceof his failure in Physics.
(iii) Find the chance of his failure in Mathematics or Physics.

9. The contents of 3 bags w.r.t green and red marbles is as given in the table shown. Bag G R
A child randomly selects one of the bags, and draws a marble from it and retains it. A 3 1
If the marble is green, the child draws the second marbles randomly from one of the two B 2 2
remaining bags. If the first marble drawn is red the child draws one more marble from the C 1 3
m
same bag. The probability that the second drawn marble is green is expressed as
n
(where m and n are coprime). Find the value of (m + n).

10. A coin has probability p of showing head when tossed. It is tossed n times. Let pn denote the
probability that no two (or more) consecutive heads occur. Prove that
p1 = 1, p2 = 1-p2 and pn = (1-p)pn-1 + p(1-p)pn-2 for all n  3.

Answers
Level-1
1. 0.1 2. 0.39 & 0.11 3. 0.8 4. 3/11 5. 2/15 6. 0
1
7. 3/8 8. 7/40 9.
13
Level-2
6 4
1. 1/2 2. 3. 13/24 4. 2065 5. 407/576 6.
16 35
7. 12 8. 2/3, 2/5, 3/10 9. 217

SPP M L6 2
Probability Sankalp Sheet
INVERSE PROBABILITY AND BAYE’S THEOREM

LEVEL-1

1. A pack of cards is counted with face downwards. It is found that one card is missing. One card is drawn and is
found to be red. Find the probability that the missing card is red.
2. Ten cards numbered 1 through 10 are placed in a box, mixed up thoroughly and then one card is drawn
randomly. If it is known that the number on the drawn card is more than 3, what is the probability that it is an
even number?
3. A man has 10 coins and one of them is known to have two heads. He takes one at random and tosses it
5 times and it always falls head : what is the chance that it is the coins with two heads?

4. One of a pack of 52 cards has been lost; from the remainder of the pack two cards are drawn and are found to
be spades; find the chance that the missing card is a spade.

5. A box has four dice in it. Three of them are fair dice but the fourth one has the number five on allof its faces.
A die is chosen at random from the box and is rolled three times and shows up the face five on all the three
occassions. Find the chance that the die chosen was a rigged die.

6. A purse contains 2 six sided dice. One is a normal fair die, while the other has 2 ones, 2 threes, and 2 fives.
A die is picked up and rolled. Because of some secret magnetic attraction of the unfair die, there is 75%
chance of picking the unfair die and a 25% chance of picking a fair die. The die is rolled and shows up the
face 3.Find the probability that a fair die was picked up.
2
7. Pal’s gardener is not dependable, the probability that he will forget to water the rose bush is 3 . The

1
rose bush is in questionable condition any how, if watered the probability of its withering is , if not
2

3
watered, the probability of its withering is . Pal went out of station and upon returning, he finds that
4
the rose bush has withered, what is the probability that the gardener did not water the bush.

8. There are 5 brilliant students in class XI and 8 brilliant students in class XII. Each class has 50
students. The odds in favour of choosing the class XI are 2 : 3. If the class XI is not chosen then the
class XII is chosen. A student is a chosen and is found to be brilliant, find the probability that the
chosen student is from class XI.

9. A pack of cards is counted with face downwards. It is found that one card is missing. One card is
drawn and is found to be red. Find the probability that the missing card is red.

10. A bag contains 6 white and an unknown number of black balls (3). Balls are drawn one by one with
replacement from this bag twice and is found to be white on both occassion. Find the probability that
the bag had exactly ‘3’ Black balls.

SPP M L7 1
Probability Sankalp Sheet
LEVEL-2
1. Each of three bags A, B, C contains white balls and black balls. A has a1 white & b1 black, B has a2 white & b2
black and C has a3 white & b3 black. A ball is drawn at random and is found to be white. Find the respective
probability that it is from A, B & C.

2. A certain drug, manufactured by a Company is tested chemically for its toxic nature. Let the event "THE
DRUG IS TOXIC" be denoted by H and the event "THE CHEMICAL TEST REVEALS THAT THE DRUG IS TOXIC" be

denoted by S. Let P(H) = a, P S / H = P S / H  = 1  a. Then show that the probability that the drug is
not toxic given that the chemical test reveals that it is toxic, is free from 'a'.

3. During a power blackout, 100 persons are arrested on suspect of looting. Each is given a polygraph test.
From past experience it is known that the polygraph is 90% reliable when administered to a guilty person
and 98% reliable when given to some one who is innocent. Suppose that of the 100 persons taken into
custody, only 12 were actually involved in any wrong doing. If the probability that a given suspect is innocent
given that the photograph says he is guilty is a b where a and b are relatively prime, find the value of (a +
b).

4. There are two packs A and B of 52 playing cards. All the four aces from the pack A are removed whereas
from the pack B, one ace, one king, one queen and one jack is removed. One of these two packs is slected
randomly and t wo cards are drawn simultaneously from it, and found to be a pair
(i.e. both have same rank e.g. two 9's or two king etc). Find the probability that the pack A was selected.

5. A box contains three coins two of them are fair and one two  headed. A coin is selected at random and
tossed. If the head appears the coin is tossed again, if a tail appears, then another coin is selected from the
remaining coins and tossed.
(i) Find the probability that head appears twice.
(ii) If the same coin is tossed twice, find the probability that it is two headed coin.
(iii) Find the probability that tail appears twice.

6. The ratio of the number of trucks along a highway, on which a petrol pump is located, to the number of cars
running along the same highway is 3 : 2. It is known that an average of one truck in thirty trucks and two cars
in fifty cars stop at the petrol pump to be filled up with the fuel. If a vehicle stops at the petrol pump to be
filled up with the fuel, find the probability that it is a car.

7. A batch of fifty radio sets was purchased from three different companies A, B and C. Eighteen of them were
manufactured by A, twenty of them by B and the rest were manufactured by C.
The companies A and C produce excellent quality radio sets with probability equal to 0.9 ; B produces the
same with the probability equal to 0.6.
What is the probability of the event that the excellent quality radio set chosen at random is manufactured by
the company B?

8. A doctor is called to see a sick child. The doctor knows (prior to the visit) that 90% of the sick children in
that neighbourhood are sick with the flu, denoted by F, while 10% are sick with the measles, denoted by M.
A well known symptom of measles is a rash, denoted by R. The probability of having a rash for a child sick
with the measles is 0.95. However, occasionally children with the flu also develop a rash, with conditional
probability 0.08.
Upon examination the child, the doctor finds a rash. What is the probability that the child has the measles?
If the probability can be expressed in the form of p q where p, q  N and are in their lowest form,
find (p + q)

SPP M L7 2
Probability Sankalp Sheet
9. With respect to a particular question on a multiple choice test (having 4 alternatives with only 1 correct) a
student knows the answer and therefore can eliminate 3 of the 4 choices from consideration with probability
2/3, can eliminate 2 of the 4 choices from consideration with probability 1/6, can eliminate 1 choice from
consideration with probability 1/9, and can eliminate none with probability 1/18. If the student knows the
answer, he answers correctly, otherwise he guesses from among the choices not eliminated. a
If the answer given by the student was found correct, then the probability that he knew the answer is
b
where a and b are relatively prime. Find the value of (a + b).

10. Three bags A, B and C are given, each containing 6 marbles. The first bag A has 5 black marbles and 1
white. The second bag B has 4 black marbles and 2 white marbles. The third bag C has 3 black marbles
and 3 white marbles. Two marbles are drawn randomly one from each of two different bags (we do not
know which bags) and found to be one white and the other black. Let P denote the probability that a marble
drawn from the remaining bag is white.
(i) Find the probability of drawing one white and one black marble from any two of the selected bags.
(ii) If one white and one black marble has been drawn, then find the probability that bags A and B were
selected.
m
(iii) If P = (as a reduced fraction), then find the value of (m + n).
n

Answers
Level-1
25 4 216 1 3
1. 2. 3. 32/41 4. 11/50 5. 6. 7.
51 7 219 7 4

1
5 25 81
8. 9. 10. 1 1 1 1
17 51
  
81 64 49 36
Level-2
a1 a2 a3 12
1. p1 
a1  b1
, p2 
a2  b 2
, p3 
a3  b 3
 
2. P H / S = 1/2 3. 179 4.
23
4 4
5. 1/2, 1/2, 1/12 6. 7. 8. 262 9. 317
9 13
25 7
10. (i) ; (ii) ; (iii) 33
54 25

SPP M L7 3
Probability Sankalp Sheet

SPP M L7 4
Probability Sankalp Sheet
MISCELLENEOUS CONCEPTS:
EXPECTATIONS, COINCIDENCE TESTIMONY, GEOMETRIC PROBABILITY
DEARRANGEMENT ETC
LEVEL-1

1. A speaks the truth 2 out of 3 times, and B 4 times out of 5; they agree in the assertion that from a bag
containing 6 balls of different colours a red ball has been drawn : find the probability that the statement is
true.

2. From a bag containing 2 one rupee and 3 two rupee coins a person is allowed to draw 2 coins indiscriminately;
find the value of his expectation.

3. A parallelogram is inscribed inside a circle of radius 10 cm. One side of parallelogram being 12 cms. Find
the probability that a point inside the circle also lies inside the parallelogram.

4. The sides of a rectangle are chosen at random, each less than 10 cm, all such lengths being equally
likely. Find the chance that the diagonal of the rectangle is less than 10 cm.

5. 2 hunters A & B shot at a bear simultaneously. The bear was shot dead with only one hole in its hide.
Probability of A shooting the bear 0.8 & that of B shooting the bear is 0.4. The hide was sold for
Rs. 280/-. If this sum of money is divided between A & B in a fair way, then find their respective shares.

6. A sphere is circumscribed over a cube. Find the probability that a point lies inside the sphere, lies outside the
cube.

7. P makes a bet with Q of Rs. 8 to Rs. 120 that three races will be won by the three horses A, B, C against which
the betting is 3 to 2, 4 to 1, and 2 to 1 respectively. The first race having been won by A, and it being known that
the second race was won either by B, or by a horse D against which the betting was 2 to 1, find the value of P’s
expectation.

8. A line segment of length a is divided in two parts at random by taking a point on it, find the probability
that no part is greater than b, where 2b > a

9. There are four letters and four envelopes, the letters are placed into the envelopes at random, find the
probability that all letters are placed in the wrong envelopes.

LEVEL-2
1. A die is thrown, a man C gets a prize of Rs. 5 if the die turns up 1 and gets a prize of Rs. 3 if the die turns up 2,
1
else he gets nothing. A man A whose probability of speaking the truth is tells C that the die has turned up 1
2
2
and another man B whose probability of speaking the truth is tells C that the die has turned up 2. Find the
3
expectation value of C.

2. A speaks the truth ‘3 times out of 4’ and B speaks the truth ‘2 times out of 3’. A die is thrown. Both assert that
the number turned up is 2. Find the probability of the truth of their assertion.

3. Let A and B be two independent witnesses in a case. The probability that A will speak the truth is x and the
probability that B will speak the truth is y. A and B agree in a certain statement. Show that the probability that
xy
the statement is true is 1  x  y  2xy

4. A wire of length l is cut into three pieces. Find the probability that the three pieces form a triangle.

SPP M L-8 1
Probability Sankalp Sheet

5. A fair die is tossed. If 2, 3 or 5 occurs, the player wins that number of rupees, but if 1, 4, or 6 occurs, the player
loses that number of rupees. Then find the possible payoffs for the player.

6. There are 100 tickets in a raffle (Lottery). There is 1 prize each of Rs. 1000/-, Rs. 500/- and
Rs. 200/-. Remaining tickets are blank. Find the expected price of one such ticket.

7. A purse contains four coins each of which is either a rupee or two rupees coin. Find the expected value of a coin
in that purse.

8. There are four envelopes with letters. Two are chosen at random and opened and are found wrongly
addressed. Find the probability there are exactly two wrongly addressed envelopes.

9. Find the probability that the orthocentre of a triangle lies inside the circumcircle.

10. Let p, q be chosen one by one from the set {1, 2, 3 , 2, e, } with replacement. Now a circle is
drawn taking (p, q) as its centre. Find the probability that at the most two rational points exist on the
circle.
(Rational points are those points whose both the coordinates are rational).

Answers
Level-1
40 48 2
1. 2. Rs. 3.20 3. 4. /4 5. 240 and 40 6. 1 –
41 25   3
2b  a 3
7. Rs. 8 8. 9.
a 8

Level-2
11 30  1
1. Rs. 2. 4. 1/4 5. –   6. Rs. 17 7. Rs. 6/- 8. 6/23
7 31 6
9. 1/9 10. 8/9

SPP M L-8 2
Probability Sankalp Sheet
HIGHER LEVEL PROBLEMS ON PROBABILITY.

Q.1 What is the probability that two queens, placed at random on a chess board, do not take on each other.

Q.2 A machine containing n different balls, when switched on, can throw up any number of balls one by one. The
probability of throwing r balls is directly proportional to r. Given that a particular ball is the first ball to pop
up, find the probability that machine has thrown up all the balls.

Q.3 A dice has one 1, two 2’s and three 3’s on its faces. A player throws it till he gets three consecutive 1’s.
If pn is the probability that the dice is thrown at least n times, prove that
5
pn 
216
pn3  6pn2  36pn1 , n  3 .

Q.4 There is a number X containing 1999 digits. Number is divisible by 9. If we add all digits of X, we get
another number Y and if we add all digits of Y we get Z. Find the probability that the number Z contains only
two digits.

Q.5 8n players P1, P2, P3..........P8n play a knock out tournament. It is known that all the players are of equal
strength. The tournament is held in 3 rounds where the players are paired at random in each round. If it is
given that P1 wins in the third round. Find the probability that P2 looses in the second round.

1  k 1  2k
Q.6 A special die is constructed so that the probability of throwing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are , ,
6 6
1  k 1  k 1  2k 1 k
, , and respectively. If two such dice are thrown then find the maximum and
6 6 6 6
minimum values of probability of getting a sum of nine.

Q.7 A tennis match of best of 5 sets is played by two players ‘A’ and ‘B’. The probability that first set is won
1 1
by A is and if he looses the first then probability of his winning of next set is otherwise it remains
2 4
same. Find the probability that A wins the match.

Q.8 If x1x2x3x4x5x6 represents a six digit number, then the probability that a six digit number chosen at random
such that x1 + x2, x3 + x4, x5 + x6 are in an increasing G.P.

Q.9 On a chess board two squares of same dimension are chosen and they are found to have a corner common.
Then find the probability that both squares lie along longest diagonal.

Q.10 There are n numbered boxes (i.e. 1, 2,3….,n) (n  2) such that each box contains n number of balls and ith box
contains exactly i number of white balls. Two balls are drawn, one by one, from this set of n boxes without
replacement and found to be white, then show that probability of both balls belonging to same box can never
be greater than 1/2.

Q.11 n candidates filed their nominations for election. Probability that exactly r candidates will withdraw from
the election is proportional to r. If r candidates withdraw then probability that out of n – r candidates
exactly i candidates are elected is proportional to i. Prove that the probability of two candidates finally
8  1 1  1 1 1 
elected is n(n  1) n 2  n    3  4  ......  n  .
    

SPP M L-9 1
Probability Sankalp Sheet

Q.12 In an organization number of women are  times that of men. If  things are to be distributed among
 1  1 1 
them than the probability that the number of things received by men are odd is  2   2   . Evaluate .
 

Q.13 Two integers n1 and n2 are chosen at random from the set {1, 2, 3, ………9}, with replacement and the
equation 22x2 + 2 11 |n1  n2| x + n1 = 0 is formed. Then find the probability of the equation having real
roots.

Q.14 3N numbered balls are arranged on a circle in order i.e. (1, 2, 3, ………., 3n – 1, 3n). Three balls are
picked at random. Find the probability that no two balls picked are neighbours to each other and the sum of
the numbers on their faces is divisible by 3.

Q.15 Two players A and B play a match which consists of a series of games (independent). Whoever first wins
two games, not necessarily consecutive, wins the match. The probabilities of A’s winning, drawing or
1 1 1
losing a game against B are , , 1th
respectively. If is known that A won the match at the end of 11
2 3 6
game, find the probability that B win only one game.

Q.16 A word of 6 letters is formed from a set of 16 different letters of English alphabet (with replacement). Find
out the probability that exactly two letters are repeated.

Q.17 A man has 3 coins A, B and C, A is unbiased, the probability that a head will result when B is tossed is 2/3;
the probability that a head will result when C is tossed is 1/3. If one of the coins, chosen at random, is tossed
3 times, giving a total of two heads and one tail, find
(i) the probability that the chosen coin was A.
(ii) the probability that a fresh toss of the same coin will give a head.

Q.18 Four players P1, P2, P3, P4 of equal strength engage in a sequence of games in which P1 plays P2, P2 plays P3,
P3 plays P4 and P4 plays P1 and so on. The player who first of all wins two consecutive games (rth and (r+1)th
game) wins the sequence. Find the probability of P1 winning the sequence.

Answers
1 36 5
1. 23/26 2. 2/(n+1) 4. 2/3 5. 2n / (8n-1) 6.  P(9)  7.
24 216 16

1381 3  n C3  n(n2  3n  3)
8. 9. 4/21 12.  = 3 13. 4/9 14. 3n 15. 9/11
9  105 C3

(18110)  120 9 241 32

16. 17. & 18.
166 25 1296 225

SPP M L-9 2