Academic Session: 2020-21

Probability

MATHEMATICS
Class XII JEE (Main + Advanced)
 Probability

Index

Topic Name Page No.

Theory 01–19

Exercise – 1 (Bronze) 20-25

Part – I Subjective Questions
Part – II Objective Questions

Exercise – 2 (Silver) 26-30

Part – I Only one option correct type
Part – II One or more than one option correct type

Exercise – 3 (Gold) 31-36

Part – I Single and double digit integer type
Part – II Match the column and Comprehension

Exercise – 4 (Platinum) 37-45

Part – I JEE (Main) Questions
Part – II JEE (Advanced) / Previous year subjective questions

Answer Key 46-48

Exercise – 5 (Diamond) 49-54

Part – I Objective Questions
Part – II Subjective Questions

Answer Key 55-55

Probability

Probability

There are various phenomena in nature, leading to an outcome, which cannot be predicted apriori
e.g. in tossing of a coin, a head or a tail may result. Probability theory aims at measuring the
uncertainties of such outcomes.
(I) Important terminology :
(i) Random experiment :
It is a process which results in an outcome which is one of the various possible outcomes that are
known to us before hand e.g. throwing of a die is a random experiment as it leads to fall of one
of the outcome from {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. Similarly taking a card from a pack of 52 cards is also a random
experiment.
(ii) Sample space :
It is the set of all possible outcomes of a random experiment e.g. {H, T} is the sample space associated
with tossing of a coin.

In set notation it can be interpreted as the universal set.

Example # 1 : Write the sample space of the experiment ‘A coin is tossed and a die is thrown’.
Solution : The sample space S = {H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6}.
Example # 2 : Write the sample space of the experiment ‘A coin is tossed, if it shows head a coin tossed
again else a die is thrown.
Solution : The sample space S = {HH, HT, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6}

Example # 3 : Find the sample space associated with the experiment of rolling a pair of dice (plural of die) once.
Also find the number of elements of the sample space.
Solution : Let one die be blue and the other be green. Suppose ‘1’ appears on blue die and ‘2’ appears on green
die. We denote this outcome by an ordered pair (1, 2). Similarly, if ‘3’ appears on blue die and ‘5’
appears on green die, we denote this outcome by (3, 5) and so on. Thus, each outcome can be
denoted by an ordered pair (x, y), where x is the number appeared on the first die (blue die) and
y appeared on the second die (green die). Thus, the sample space is given by
S = {(x, y) x is the number on blue die and y is the number on grey die}
We now list all the possible outcomes (figure)

1 2 3 4 5 6
1 (1, 1) (1, 2) (1, 3) (1, 4) (1, 5) (1, 6)
2 (2, 1) (2, 2) (2, 3) (2, 4) (2, 5) (2, 6)
3 (3, 1) (3, 2) (3, 3) (3, 4) (3, 5) (3, 6)
4 (4, 1) (4, 2) (4, 3) (4, 4) (4, 5) (4, 6)
5 (5, 1) (5, 2) (5, 3) (5, 4) (5, 5) (5, 6)
6 (6, 1) (6, 2) (6, 3) (6, 4) (6, 5) (6, 6)
Figure
Number of elements (outcomes) of the above sample space is 6 × 6 i.e., 36
Self practice problems :
(1) A coin is tossed twice, if the second throw results in head, a die is thrown then write sample
space of the experiment.
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Probability
(2) An urn contains 3 red balls and 2 blue balls. Write sample space of the experiment ‘Selection
of a ball from the urn at random’.
Answers : (1) {HT, TT, HH1, HH2, HH3, HH4, HH5, HH6, TH1, TH2, TH3, TH4, TH5, TH6}.
(2) {R1, R2, R3, B1, B2 }. (Here the balls are distinguished from one and other by
naming red balls as R 1, R2 and R3 and the blue balls as B 1 and B2.)

(iii) Event :
It is subset of sample space. e.g. getting a head in tossing a coin or getting a prime number in
throwing a die. In general if a sample space consists ‘n’ elements, then a maximum of 2 n events can
be associated with it.

(iv) Complement of event :

The complement of an event ‘A’ with respect to a sample space S is the set of all elements of ‘S’ which
are not in A. It is usually denoted by A, A or AC.
(v) Simple event :
If an event covers only one point of sample space, then it is called a simple event e.g. getting a head
followed by a tail in throwing of a coin 2 times is a simple event.

(vi) Compound event :

When two or more than two events occur simultaneously, the event is said to be a compound event.
Symbolically A  B or AB represent the occurrence of both A & B simultaneously.

Note : “A B” or A + B represent the occurrence of either A or B.

Example # 4 : Write down all the events of the experiment ‘tossing of a coin’.
Solution : S = {H, T}
the events are  , {H}, {T}, {H, T}

Example # 5 : A die is thrown. Let A be the event ‘ an odd number turns up’ and B be the event ‘a number
divisible by 3 turns up’. Write the events (a) A or B (b) A and B
Solution : A = {1, 3, 5}, B = {3, 6}
 A or B = A  B = {1, 3, 5, 6}
A and B = A  B = {3}

Self practice problems :

(3) A coin is tossed and a die is thrown. Let A be the event ‘H turns up on the coin and odd number
turns up on the die’ and B be the event ‘ T turns up on the coin and an even number turns up
on the die’. Write the events (a) A or B (b) A and B.

(4) In tossing of two coins, let A = {HH, HT} and B = {HT, TT}. Then write the events
(a) A or B (b) A and B.

Answers : (3) (a) {H1, H3, H5, T2, T4, T6} (b) 
(4) (a) {HH, HT, TT} (b) {HT}

(vii) Equally likely events :

If events have same chance of occurrence, then they are said to be equally likely.
e.g
(i) In a single toss of a fair coin, the events {H} and {T} are equally likely.
(ii) In a single throw of an unbiased die the events {1}, {2}, {3} and {4}, are equally likely.
(iii) In tossing a biased coin the events {H} and {T} are not equally likely.

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Probability
(viii) Mutually exclusive / disjoint / incompatible events :
Two events are said to be mutually exclusive if occurrence of one of them rejects the possibility of
occurrence of the other i.e. both cannot occur simultaneously.
In the vein diagram the events A and B are mutually exclusiv e. Mathematically, we write
A  B = 
Events A1, A2, A3, ....... An are said to be mutually exclusive events iff
Ai  Aj =   i, j  {1, 2, ..., n} where i  j

Note : If Ai  Aj =   i, j  {1, 2, ..., n} where i  j, then A1  A2  A3 ....  An =  but converse

need not to be true.

Example # 6 : In a single toss of a coin find whether the events {H}, {T} are mutually exclusive or not.
Solution : Since {H}  {T} = ,
 the events are mutually exclusive.

Example # 7 : In a single throw of a die, find whether the events {1, 2}, {2, 3} are mutually exclusive or not.
Solution : Since {1, 2}  {2, 3} = {2} 
 the events are not mutually exclusive.

Self practice problems :

(5) In throwing of a die write whether the events ‘Coming up of an odd number’ and ‘Coming up
of an even number’ are mutually exclusive or not.

(6) An experiment involves rolling a pair of dice and recording the numbers that come up. Describe the
following events :
A : the sum is greater than 8.
B : 2 occurs on either die.
C : the sum is at least 7 and a multiple of 3.
Also, find A  B, B  C and A  C.
Are (i) A and B mutually exclusive ?
(ii) B and C mutually exclusive ?
(iii) A and C mutually exclusive ?
Answers : (5) Yes
(6) A = {(3, 6), (4, 5), (5, 4), (6, 3), (4, 6), (5, 5), (6, 4), (5, 6), (6, 5), (6, 6)}
B = {(1, 2), (2, 2), (3, 2), (4, 2), (5, 2), (6, 2), (2, 1), (2, 3), (2, 4). (2, 5), (2, 6)}
C = {(3, 6), (6, 3), (5, 4), (4, 5), (6, 6)}
A  B = , B  C = , A  C = {(3, 6), (6, 3), (5, 4), (4, 5), (6, 6)}
(i) Yes (ii) Yes (iii) No.

(ix) Exhaustive system of events :

If each outcome of an experiment is associated with at least one of the events E 1, E2, E3, .........En ,
then collectively the events are said to be exhaustive. Mathematically we write
E1 E2 E3.........En = S. (Sample space)

Example # 8 : In throwing of a die, let A be the event ‘even number turns up’, B be the event ‘an odd prime
turns up’ and C be the event ‘a numbers less than 4 turns up’. Find whether the events
A, B and C form an exhaustive system or not.
Solution : A  {2, 4, 6}, B  {3, 5} and C  {1, 2, 3}.
Clearly A B C = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} = S. Hence the system of events is exhaustive.
Example # 9 : 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.
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Probability
Ans. (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]

Self practice problems :

(7) In throwing of a die which of the following pair of events are mutually exclusive ?
(a) the events ‘coming up of an odd number’ and ‘coming up of an even number’
(b) the events ‘coming up of an odd number’ and ‘coming up of a number  4’

(8) In throwing of a die which of the following system of events are exhaustive ?
(a) the events ‘an odd number turns up’, ‘a number  4 turns up’ and ‘the number 5 turns
up’.
(b) the events ‘a number  4 turns up’, ‘a number > 4 turns up’.
(c) the events ‘an even number turns up’, ‘a number divisible by 3 turns up’, ‘number
1 or 2 turns up’ and ‘the number 6 turns up’.
Answers (7) (a) (8) (b)

( II) Classical (a priori) definition of probability :

If an experiment results in a total of (m + n) outcomes which are equally likely and if ‘m’ outcomes
are favorable to an event ‘A’ while ‘n’ are unfavorable, then the probability of occurrence of the event

m number of favourable outcomes

‘A’, denoted by P(A), is defined by = total number of outcomes
mn

m
i.e. P(A) = .
mn
We say that odds in favour of ‘A’ are m : n, while odds against ‘A’ are n : m.
n
Note that P( A ) or P(A) or P(A C), i.e. probability of non-occurrence of A = = 1 – P(A)
mn
In the above we shall denote the number of out comes favourable to the event A by n(A) and the total
number of out comes in the sample space S by n(S).
n( A )
 P(A) = .
n(S)

Example # 10 : In throwing of a fair die find the probability of the event ‘ a number  4 turns up’.
Solution : Sample space S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} ; event A = {1, 2, 3, 4}
 n(A) = 4 and n(S) = 6
n( A ) 4 2
 P(A) = = = .
n(S) 6 3

Example # 11 : In throwing of a fair die, find the probability of turning up of an odd number  4.
Solution : S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
Let E be the event ‘turning up of an odd number  4’
then E = {5}
n (E) 1
 P(E) = n (S ) = .
6
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Probability
Example # 12 : In throwing a pair of fair dice, find the probability of getting a total of 8.
Solution : When a pair of dice is thrown the sample space consists
{(1, 1) (1, 2) .......... (1, 6)
(2, 1,) (2, 2,)......... (2, 6)
.... ..... .... ...
.... ... ... ...
(6, 1), (6, 2) ........ (6, 6)}
Note that (1, 2) and (2, 1) are considered as separate points to make each outcome as equally
likely.
To get a total of ‘8’, favourable outcomes are, (2, 6) (3, 5) (4, 4) (5, 3) and (6, 2).
5
Hence required probability =
36

Example # 13 : 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

Solution : Total 4 digit numbers formed

Each of these 96 numbers are equally likely & mutually exclusive of each other.
Now, A number is divisible by 4, if last two digits of the number is divisible by 4
Hence we can have  first two places can be filled in 3 × 2 = 6 ways

 first two places can be filled in 2 × 2 = 4 ways

 6 ways

 4 ways

 4 ways

 6 ways
__________
Total number of ways 30 ways
favorable outcomes 30 5
probability = = = Ans.
Total outcomes 96 16

Self practice problems :

(9) A bag contains 4 white, 3 red and 2 blue balls. A ball is drawn at random. Find the probability
of the event (a) the ball drawn is white or red (b) the ball drawn is white as well as red.

(10) In throwing a pair of fair dice find the probability of the events ‘ a total of of less than or equal
to 9”’.
Answers (9) (a) 7/9 (b) 0 (10) 5/6.

(III) Addition theorem of probability :

If ‘A’ and ‘B’ are any two events associated with an experiment, then

P(AB) = P(A) + P(B) – P(AB)

De Morgan’s laws : If A & B are two subsets of a universal set U, then

(a) (A B)c = Ac Bc
(b) (A B)c = Ac Bc

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Probability
Distributive laws : (a) A  (B C) = (A B)  (A C)
(b) A  (B C) = (A B)  (A C)
For any three events A, B and C we have the figure

(i) P(A or B or C) = P(A) + P(B) + P(C) – P(A B) – P(B C) – P(C A) + P(A B C)
(ii) P (at least two of A, B, C occur) = P(B  C) + P(C  A) + P(A  B) – 2P(A B C)
(iii) P(exactly two of A, B, C occur) = P(B C) + P(C A) + P(A B) – 3P(A B  C)
(iv) P(exactly one of A, B, C occur) =
P(A) + P(B) + P(C) – 2P(B C) – 2P(C A) – 2P(A B) + 3P(A B C)

Example # 14 : 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’.
Solution : Let A be the event ‘the ball drawn is white’ and B be the event ‘the ball drawn is green’.
8
P(The ball drawn is white or green) = P (A  B) = P(A) + P(B) – P(A  B) =
11

Example # 15 : 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.
Solution : Event A = {1, 3, 5}, event B = {3, 6} and event C = {1, 2, 3, 4}
 A  B = {3}, B  C = {3}, A  C = {1, 3} and A  B  C = {3}.
Thus P(exactly two of A, B and C occur)
= P(A  B) + P(B  C) + P(C  A) – 3P(A  B  C)
1 1 2 1 1
= + + –3× =
6 6 6 6 6

Self practice problems :

(11) 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 atleast two of A, B and C occur.

(12) In the problem number 11, find the probability that exactly one of A, B and C occurs.
1 2
Answers (11) (12)
3 3

( IV ) Conditional p robability
P(A  B)
If A and B are two events, then P(A/B) = .
P(B)
Note that for mutually exclusive events P(A/B) = 0.

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Probability

Example # 16 : If P(A/B) = 0.2 and P(B) = 0.5 and P(A) = 0.2. Find P(A  B ).
Solution : P(A  B ) = P(A) – P(A  B)
P( A  B)
Also P(A/B) =  P(A  B) = 0.1
P(B)
From given data,
P(A  B ) = 0.1

Example # 17 : 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 
Solution :  
We have to find P A  B = 1 – P(A  B) (by De-Morgan’s law)
Also, P(A B) = P(A) + P(B) – P(A  B)
putting data we get, P A  B  = 0.39

The shaded region denotes the simultaneous occurrence of A and B

 
Hence P A  B = P(A) – P(A  B) = 0.11

Self practice problem :

(13) If P( A / B ) = 0.2, P(A  B) = 0.9, then find P(A  B ) ?
Answer : 0.4

(V) Independent and dependent events

If two events are such that occurence or non-occurence of one does not affect the chances of occurence
or non-occurence of the other event, then the events are said to be independent. Mathematically : if
P(A  B) = P(A) P(B), then A and B are independent.

Note: (i) If A and B are independent, then

(a) A and B are independent,
(b) A and B are independent and
(c) A and B are independent.
(ii) If A and B are independent, then P(A / B) = P(A).
If events are not independent then they are said to be dependent.
Independency of three or more events
Three events A, B & C are independent if & only if all the following conditions hold :
P(A  B) = P(A) . P(B) ; P(B  C) = P(B) . P(C)
P (C  A) = P(C) . P(A) ; P(A  B  C) = P(A) . P(B) . P(C)

Example # 18 : A pair of fair coins is tossed yielding the equiprobable space S = {HH, HT, TH, TT}. Consider
the events:
A = {head on first coin} = {HH, HT}, B = {head on second coin} = {HH, TH}
C = {head on exactly one coin} = {HT, TH}
Then check whether A, B, C are independent or not.
2 1
Solution : P(A) = P(B) = P(C) = = .
4 2
1 1 1
Also P(A  B) = = P(A) P(B), P(A  C) = = P(A) P(C), P(B  C) = = P(B) P(C)
4 4 4
but P(A  B  C) = 0  P(A) P(B) P(C)
 A, B & C are not independent
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Probability
Example # 19 : 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
Solution : Let E be the event ‘Red on first draw’, F be the event ‘Red on second draw’ and G be the event
‘white on second draw’.
6 6 4
P(E) = , P(F) = , P(G) =
10 10 10
6
P2 1
(a) P(E  F) = 10 =
P2 3

3 3 9 1
P(E) . P(F) = × = 
5 5 25 3
 E and F are not independent
6 4 6
(b) P(E) . P(G) = × =
10 10 25
6
P1 4 P1 4
P(E  G) = 10 =
P2 15
 P(E) . P(G)  P(E  G)
 E and G are not independent

Example # 20 : 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.

Solution : Consider the following events :

A = Switch S1 works,
B = Switch S2 works,
We have,
90 9 80 8
P(A) = = and P(B) = =
100 10 100 10
(i) The circuit will work if the current flows in the circuit. This is possible only when both the
switches work together. Therefore,
Required probability
= P(A  B) = P(A) P (B) [ A and B are independent events]
9 8 72 18
= × = =
10 10 100 25
(ii) The circuit will work if the current flows in the circuit. This is possible only when at least one
of the two switches S1, S2 works. Therefore,
Required Probability
= P(A  B) = 1 – P ( A ) P( B ) [ A, Bare independent events]

 9   8  1 2 49
= 1 – 1   1   =1 – × =
 10   10  10 10 50

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Probability
Example # 21 : A speaks truth in 60% of the cases and b in 90% of the cases. In what percentage of cases are they
likely to contradict each other in stating the same fact?
Solution : Let E be the event that A speaks truth and F be the event that B speaks truth. Then E and F are
independent events such that
60 3 90 9
P(E) = = and P(F) = =
100 5 100 10
A and B will contradict each other in narrating the same fact in the following mutually exclusive
ways:
(i) A speaks truth and B tells a lie i.e. E  F
(ii) A tells a lie and B speaks truth lie i.e. E  F
 P(A and B contradict each other)
= P(I or II) = (I  II) = P[(E  F )  ( E  F)]
= P(E  F ) + P ( E  F) [ E  F and E  F are mutually exclusive]
= P(E) P( F ) + P( E ) P(F) [ E and F are in dep.]
3  9   3 9 3 1 2 9 21
= × 1   + 1   × = × + × =
5  10   5  10 5 10 5 10 50

Example # 22 : A box contains 5 bulbs of which two are defective. Test is carried on bulbs one by one untill the two
defective bulbs are found out. Find the probability that the process stops after
(i) Second test (ii) Third test
Solution : (i) Process will stop after second test. Only if the first and second bulb are both found to be
defective
2 1 1
probability = × = (Obviously the bulbs drawn are not kept back.)
5 4 10
(ii) Process will stop after third test when either
2 3 1 1
(a) DND  × × = Here ‘D’ stands for defective
5 4 3 10
3 2 1 1
or (b) NDD  × × = and ‘N’ is for not defective.
5 4 3 10
3 2 1 1
or (c) NNN  × × =
5 4 3 10
3
hence required probability =
10

1 1  E1  1
Example # 23 : If E1 and E2 are two events such that P(E1) = ; P(E2) = ; P  
 E  = , then choose the correct
4 2  2 4
options.
(i) E1 and E2 are independent (ii) E1 and E2 are exhaustive
(iii) E1 and E2 are mutually exclusive (iv) E1 & E2 are dependent
 E1   E2 
Also find P  E  and  

 2  E1 
 E1 
Solution : Since P  E  = P(E1)  E1 and E2 are independent of each other
 2
Also since P(E1  E2) = P(E1) + P(E2) – P(E1) . P(E2)  1
Hence events are not exhaustive. Independent events can’t be mutually exclusive.
Hence only (i) is correct
Further since E1 & E2 are independent; E1 and E2 or E1 , E2 are E1 , E2 are also independent.

E  3 E  1
Hence P 1  = P E1 =
E  4
  and P 2  = P (E2) =
2
 2  E1 

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Probability
Example # 24 : If cards are drawn one by one from a well shuffled pack of 52 cards without replacement, until an ace
appears, find the probability that the fourth card is the first ace to appear.
48
C 3 4 C1
Solution : Probability of selecting 3 non-Ace and 1 Ace out of 52 cards is equal to 52
C4
Since we want 4th card to be first ace, we will also have to consider the arrangement, Now 4 cards
in sample space can be arranged in 4! ways and, favorable they can be arranged in 3 ! ways as we
want 4th position to be occupied by ace
48
C 3 4 C1 3!
Hence required probability = 52 ×
C4 4!
Aliter :
‘NNNA’ is the arrangement then we desire in taking out cards, one by one
48 47 46 4
Hence required chance is × × ×
52 51 50 49

Self practice problems :

(14) An urn contains 7 red and 4 blue balls. Two balls are drawn at random with replacement. Find the
probability of getting
(i) 2 red balls (ii) 2 blue balls (iii) one red and one blue ball
1 1
(15) Probabilities of solving a specific problem independently by A and B are and respectively. If
2 3
both try to solve the problem independently, find the probability that
(i) the problem is solved (ii) exactly one of them solves the problem.

(16) In throwing a pair of dies find the probability of getting an odd number on the first die and a
total of 7 on both the dies.

(17) In throwing of a pair of dies, find the probability of getting a doublet or a total of 4.

(18) A bag contains 8 marbles of which 3 are blue and 5 are red. One marble is drawn at random, its
colour is noted and the marble is replaced in the bag. A marble is again drawn from the bag and its
colour is noted. Find the probability that the marbles will be
(i) blue followed by red (ii) blue and red in any order (iii) of the same colour.

(19) A coin is tossed thrice. In which of the following cases are the events E and F independent ?
(i) E : “the first throw results in head”.
F : “the last throw result in tail”.
(ii) E : “the number of heads is two”.
F : “the last throw result in head”.
(iii) E : “the number of heads is odd ”.
F : “the number of tails is odd”.
49 16 56 2 1
Answers : (14) (i) (ii) (iii) (15) (i) (ii)
121 121 121 3 2

1 2 15 15 17
(16) (17) (18) (i) (ii) (iii)
12 9 64 32 32

(19) (i)
( VI ) Binomial probability theorem :
If an experiment is such that the probability of success or failure does not change with trials, then
the probability of getting exactly r success in n trials of such an experiment is n Cr pr qn – r, where ‘p’
is the probability of a success and q is the probability of a failure in one particular experiment. Note
that p + q = 1.
10
Probability
Example 25 : A pair of dice is thrown 5 times. Find the probability of getting a doublet twice.
1
Solution : In a single throw of a pair of dice probability of getting a doublet is
6

1
considering it to be a success, p =
6

1 5
 q= 1– =
6 6
number of success r = 2
2 3
 1 5 625
 P(r = 2) = C2 p q = 10 .  
5 2 3
.   =
6 6 3888

Example # 26 : 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.
4 1
Solution : p = probability of getting ‘a total of 9’ = =
36 9

1 8
 q= 1– =
9 9
r = 3, n = 4
3
 1 8 32
 P(r = 3) = C3 p q = 4 ×  
4 3
. =
9 9 6561

Example # 27 : 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.
Solution : A student can mark 15 different answers to a MCQ with 4 option i.e. 4C1 + 4C2 + 4C3 + 4C4 = 15
1
Hence if he marks the answer at random, chance that his answer is correct = and being
15

14 1 14
incorrecting . Thus p= ,q= .
15 15 15
2 8
 1   14 
P (2 success) = 10C2 ×   ×  
 15   15 

Example # 28 : A family has three children. Event ‘A’ is that family has at most one boy, Event ‘B’ is that family has
at least one boy and one girl, Event ‘C’ is that the family has at most one girl. Find whether events
‘A’ and ‘B’ are independent. Also find whether A, B, C are independent or not.
Solution : A family of three children can have
(i) All 3 boys (ii) 2 boys + 1 girl (iii) 1 boy + 2 girls (iv) 3 girls
3
 1 1
(i) P (3 boys) = 3C0   = (Since each child is equally likely to be a boy or a girl)
2 8

2
 1 1 3
(ii) P (2 boys +1girl) = C1 ×   × = (Note that there are three cases BBG, BGB, GBB)
3
2
  2 8

1 2
 1  1 3
(iii) P (1 boy + 2 girls) = C2 ×   ×   =
3
 2 2 8

11
Probability
1
(iv) P (3 girls) =
8
1
Event ‘A’ is associated with (iii) & (iv). Hence P(A) =
2
3
Event ‘B’ is associated with (ii) & (iii). Hence P(B) =
4
1
Event ‘C’ is associated with (i) & (ii). Hence P(C) =
2
3
P(A B) = P(iii) = = P(A) . P(B) . Hence A and B are independent of each other
8
P(A C) = 0  P(A) . P(C) . Hence A, B, C are not independent

Self practice problems :

(20) A box contains 2 red and 3 blue balls. Two balls are drawn successively without replacement.
If getting ‘a red ball on first draw and a blue ball on second draw’ is considered a success,
then find the probability of 2 successes in 3 performances.

(21) Probability that a bulb produced by a factory will fuse after an year of use is 0.2. Find the
probability that out of 5 such bulbs not more than 1 bulb will fuse after an year of use.
2304
Answers (20) 189/1000 (21)
3125
( VII) Expectation :
If there are n possibilities A 1, A2, .... An in an experiment having the probabilities p 1, p2, .........pn
respectively. If value M 1, M2, ....., Mn are associated with the respective possibility. Then the expected
n

value of the experiment is given by p . M

i 1
i i

Example # 29 : 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.

Ai 2 3 5 1 4 6
Mi 2 3 5 –1 –4 –6
Solution :
Pi 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6
Then expected value E of the game payoffs for the player
 1  1  1  1  1  1  1
= 2   + 3   + 5   – 1   – 4  – 6  = – 
6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Since E is negative therefore game is unfavorable to the player.
Example # 30 : 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.
Solution : Expectation =  piMi outcome of a ticket can be
pi Mi piMi
1
(i) I prize 1000 10
100
1
(ii) II prize 500 5
100
1
(iii) III prize 200 2
100
97
(iv) Blank 0 0
100
________________
 piMi = 17
________________
Hence expected price of one such ticket Rs. 17
12
Probability
Example # 31 : 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.
Solution : Various possibilities of coins in the purse can be
pi Mi piMi
1 4
(i) 4 1 rupee coins 4
16 16

4 20
(ii) 3 one Rs. + 1 two Rs. 5
16 16

6 36
(iii) 2 one Rs. + 2 two Rs. 6
16 16

4 28
(iv) 1 one Rs. + 3 two Rs. 7
16 16

1 8
(v) 4 two Rs. 8
16 16
________________
6/-
________________
Hence expected value is Rs. 6/-

Note : (that since each coin is equally likely to be one Rs. or two Rs. coin, the probability is determined
using Binomial probability; unlike the case when the purse contained the coins with all possibility
1
being equally likely, where we take pi = for each.)
5
Self practice problems :

(22) From a bag containing 2 one rupee and 3 two rupee coins a person is allowed to draw 2 coins
simultaneously ; find the value of his expectation.
Answer : Rs. 3.20

( VIII) Total probability theorem

If an event A can occur with one of the n mutually exclusive and exhaustive events B 1, B2, ....., Bn
and the probabilities P(A/B 1), P(A/B2) .... P(A/Bn ) are known, then
n
P(A) =  P(B ) . P(A / B )
i 1
i i

Proof :
The event A occurs with one of the n mutually exclusive and exhaustive events
B1, B2, B3,........,Bn
A = (A  B1)  (A  B2)  (A  B3)  ........  (A  Bn )
n

P(A) = P(A  B1) + P(A B2) + ....... + P(A Bn ) =  P(A  B )

i1
i

Now,
P(A  Bi) = P(A) . P(B i/A) = P(Bi) . P(A/Bi)
n
 P(A) =  P(B ) . P(A / B )
i 1
i i

13
Probability
Example # 32 : Box -  contains 5 red and 4 white balls while box -  contains 4 red and 2 white balls. A fair
die is thrown. If it turns up a multiple of 3, a ball is drawn from box -  else a ball is drawn from
box - . Find the probability that the ball drawn is white.
Solution : Let A be the event ‘a multiple of 3 turns up on the die’ and R be the event ‘the ball drawn is
white’
then P (ball drawn is white)

2 4  2 2 10
= P(A) . P(R / A) + P ( A ) P(R / A ) = × + 1   =
6 9  6 6 27

Example # 33 : Cards of an ordinary deck of playing cards are placed into two heaps. Heap - consists of
all the red cards and heap - 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.
Solution : Let  and be the events that heap -  and heap - are choosen respectively. Then
1
P() = P() =
2
Let K be the event ‘the card drawn is a king’
2 2
 P (K / ) = and P(K / ) =
26 26
1 2 1 2 1
 P(K) = P () P(K / ) + P() P(K / ) = × + × = .
2 26 2 26 13
Self practice problems :
(23) Box -  contains 3 red and 2 blue balls while box - II contains 2 red and 3 blue balls. A fair
coin is tossed. If it turns up head, a ball is drawn from box - , else a ball is drawn from
box -  . Find the probability that the ball drawn is red.

(24) 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. Find the probability of selecting a brilliant student.
1 17
Answers : (23) (24) .
2 125

( I X) Bayes’ theorem :
If an event A can occur with one of the n mutually exclusive and exhaustive events B 1, B2 , ....., Bn and
the probabilities P(A/B 1), P(A/B2) .... P(A/Bn ) are known, then

P(B i ) . P( A / B i )
P(Bi / A) = n

Proof :

i 1
P(B i ) . P( A / B i )

The event A occurs with one of the n mutually exclusive and exhaustive events
B1, B2, B3,........,Bn
A = (A  B1)  (A  B2)  (A  B3)  ........  (A  Bn )
n

P(A) = P(A  B1) + P(A B2) + ....... + P(A Bn ) =  P(A  B )

i1
i

Now,
P(A  Bi) = P(A) . P(B i/A) = P(Bi) . P(A/Bi)
P(Bi ) . P( A / Bi ) P(B i ) . P( A / B i )
P (Bi/A) = = n
P( A )

P( A  B i )
i 1

P(Bi ) . P( A / Bi )
P(Bi/A) =
 P(B ) . P( A / B )
i i

14
Probability

2
Example # 34 : Pal’s gardener is not dependable, the probability that he will forget to water the rose bush is . The
3

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
4
that the rose bush has withered, what is the probability that the gardener did not water the bush.
[Here result is known that the rose bush has withered, therefore. Bayes’s theorem should be used]
Solution : Let A = the event that the rose bush has withered
Let A1 = the event that the gardener did not water.
A2 = the event that the gardener watered.
By Bayes’s theorem required probability,
P( A 1 ) . P( A / A 1 )
P(A1/A) = P( A ) . P( A / A )  P( A ) . P( A / A ) .....(i)
1 1 2 2

2 1
Given, P(A1) =  P(A2) =
3 3

3 1
P(A/A1) = , P(A/A2) =
4 2

2 3
.
3 4 6 3
From (1), P(A1/A) = 2 3 1 1 = =
.  . 62 4
3 4 3 2

Example # 35 : 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.
Solution : Let E and F be the events ‘Class XI is chosen’ and ‘Class XII is chosen’ respectively.
2 3
Then P(E) = , P(F) =
5 5
Let A be the event ‘Student chosen is brilliant’.
5 8
Then P(A / E) = and P(A / F) = .
50 50

2 5 3 8 34
 P(A) = P(E) . P(A / E) + P(F) . P(A / F) = . + . = .
5 50 5 50 250

P(E ) . P( A / E ) 5
 P(E / A) = P(E ) . P( A / E )  P(F) . P( A / F) = .
17

Example # 36 : 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.
Solution : Let A be the event of drawing a red card when one card is drawn out of 51 cards (excluding missing
card.) Let A1 be the event that the missing card is red and A2 be the event that the missing card is
black.
Now by Bayes’s theorem, required probability,
P( A 1 ) . (P( A / A 1 )
P(A1/A) = ..........(i)
P( A 1 ) . P( A / A 1 )  P( A 2 ) . P( A / A 2 )
In a pack of 52 cards 26 are red and 26 are black.

15
Probability

26
C1 26 1
Now P(A1) = probability that the missing card is red = 52 = =
C1 52 2

26 1
P(A2) = probability that the missing card is black = =
52 2
P(A/A1) = probability of drawing a red card when the missing card is red.
25
=
51
[Total number of cards left is 51 out of which 25 are red and 26 are black as the missing card is red]
26
Again P(A/A2) = Probability of drawing a red card when the missing card is black =
51
1 25
.
2 51 25
Now from (i), required probability, P(A1/A) = 1 25 1 26 =
.  . 51
2 51 2 51
Example # 37 : 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.
Solution : Apriori, we can think of the following possibilies
(i) E1 6W , 0B
(ii) E2 6W , 1B
(iii) E3 6W , 2B
(iv) E4 6W , 3B
1
Clearly P(E1) = P(E2) = P(E3) = P(E4) =
4
Let ‘A’ be the event that two balls drawn one by one with replacement are both white therefore we
 E4 
have to find P  
 A 

 A
P   P(E4 )
 E4   E4

By Baye’s theorem P   =
 A   A   A   A   A 
P    P(E1 )  P   . P(E2 )  P   . P(E3 )  P   . P(E4 )
 E1   E2   E3   E4 
 A  6 6  A  6 6  A  6 6 A 6 6
P  E  = × ; P  E  = × ; P  E  = × ; P  E  = × ;
 4 9 9  3 8 8  2 7 7  1 6 6

1 1

 E4  81 4
Putting values P   = 1 1
 A   1 1 1 
  
4  81 64 49 36 
Self practice problems :
(25) Box- contains 3 red and 2 blue balls while box- contains 2 red and 3 blue balls. A fair coin
is tossed. If it turns up head, a ball is drawn from box-, else a ball is drawn from box-. If the
ball drawn is red, then find the probability that the ball is drawn from box-.
(26) Cards of an ordinary deck of playing cards are placed into two heaps. Heap - consists of all
the red cards and heap - consists of all the black cards. A heap is chosen at random and
a card is drawn, if the card drawn is found to be a king, find the probability that the card drawn
is from the heap - .
2 1
Answers : (25) (26)
5 2
16
Probability
(X) Probability distrib ution :
(i) A probability distribution spells out how a total probability of 1 is distributed over several values
of a random variable (i.e. how ............................... possibilities)
(ii) Mean of any probability distribution of a random variable is given by :
 pi x i
µ= =  pi x i (Since  pi = 1)
 pi
(iii) Variance of a random variable is given by, 2 = (x i – µ)2 . pi
 2 = pi x i2 – µ2 (Note that SD = +  2 )
(iv) The probability distribution for a binomial variate ‘X’ is given by :
P(X = r) = n Cr pr qn – r where P(X = r) is the probability of r successes.
P(r  1) nr p
The recurrence formula = . , is very helpful for quickly computing P(1) . P(2)
P(r ) r 1 q
. P(3) etc. if P(0) is known.
Mean of Binomial Probability Distribution = np ; v ariance of Binomial Probability
Distribution = npq.
(v) If p represents a person’s chance of success in any venture and ‘M’ the sum of money which
he will receive in case of success, then his expectations or probable value = pM
Example # 38 : 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.]

Example # 39 : 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.
1
Solution : In a single throw of a pair of dice, probability of getting a doublet =
6
1
considering it to be a success, p =
6
1 5
 q= 1– =
6 6
1 5 1 5 25
mean = 5 × = , variance = 5 × . =
6 6 6 6 36
Example # 40 : 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.
4 1
Solution : p = probability of getting a total of 9 = =
36 9
1 8
 q= 1– =
9 9
1 4
 mean = np = 4 × =
9 9
1 8 32
variance = npq = 4 × × =
9 9 81
Example # 41 : 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
Solution : Mean = np & variance = npq
therefore, np – npq = 1 ..........(i)
n2p2 – n2p2q2 = 11 ..........(ii)
Also, we know that p + q = 1 ..........(iii)
17
Probability

5 1
Divide equation (ii) by square of (i) and solve, we get, q = ,p= & n = 36
6 6
3 33
 1 5
Hence probability of ‘3’ success = C3 ×   ×  
36
6
  6
Self practice problems :
(27) A box contains 2 red and 3 blue balls. Two balls are drawn successively without replacement.
If getting ‘a red ball on first draw and a blue ball on second draw’ is considered a success,
then find the mean and variance of successes.
(28) Probability that a bulb produced by a factory will fuse after an year of use is 0.2. If fusing of
a bulb is considered an failure, find the mean and variance of successes for a sample of 10
bulbs.
(29) A random variable X is specified by the following distribution law :
X 2 3 4
P(X = x) 0.3 0.4 0.3
Then the variance of this distribution is :
(A) 0.6 (B) 0.7 (C) 0.77 (D) 1.55
2
Answers : (27) mean = 2.1,  = .63 (28) mean = 8 and variance = 1.6 (29) A

( X I) Geometrical applications:
The following statements are axiomatic :
(i) If a point is taken at random on a given straight line segment AB, the chance that it falls on a particular
fa var able length
segment PQ of the line segment is PQ/AB. i.e. probability = total length
(ii) If a point is taken at random on the area S which includes an area , the chance that the point falls
fa var able area
on  is /S. i.e.
total area

Example # 42 : A sphere is circumscribed over a cube. Find the probability that a point lies inside the sphere, lies
outside the cube.
favorable volume
Solution : Required probability =
total volume
a 3
Clearly if edge length of cube is a radius of sphere will be
2
3
4  a 3  3
 = a 3
Thus, volume of sphere = 
3  2 
 2

1 2
Hence P = 1 – =1–
3  3

2

Example # 43 : A given line segment is divided at random into three parts. What is the probability that they
form sides of a possible triangle ?
Solution : Let AB be the line segment of length .
Let C and D be the points which divide AB into three parts.
Let AC = x, CD = y. Then DB =  – x – y.
Clearly x + y < 
 the sample space is given by
the region enclosed by  OPQ, where OP = OQ = 

18
Probability

2
Area of OPQ =
2
Now if the parts AC, CD and DB form a triangle, then

x + y >  –x – y i.e. x + y > ...........(i)
2

x + – x – y > y i.e. y < ...........(ii)
2

y + – x – y > x i.e. x < ...........(iii)
2
from (i), (ii) and (iii), we get
the event is given by the region closed in RST
1  
ar ( RST ) . .
2 2 2 1
 Probability of the event = ar ( OPQ ) = 2 =
 4
2
Example # 44 : On a line segment of length L two points are taken at random, find the probability that the
distance between them is  , where  < 1
Solution : Let AB be the line segment
Let C and D be any two points on AB so that AC = x and CD = y. Then x + y < L, y > 
 sample space is represented by the region enclosed by OPQ.
1 2
Area of OPQ = L
2

The event is represented by the region, bounded by the RSQ

1
Area of RSQ = (L – )2
2
2
L 
 probability of the event =  
 L 

Self practice problems :

(30) 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

(31) A cloth of length 10 meters is to be randomly distributed among three brothers, find the probability
that no one gets more than 4 meters of cloth.
2b  a 1
Answers (30) (31)
a 25

19
Probability

Exercise-1 (Bronze)
PART - I : SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

Section (A) : Problems based on Classical definition of Probability (PRCD)

A-1. Write the sample space of the following experiment

(i) ‘Three coins are tossed’.
(ii) ‘Selection of two children from a group of 3 boys and 2 girls without replacement’.

A-2. There are three events A, B, C, one of which must, and only one can, happen; the odds are 8 to 3 against A,
5 to 2 against B : find the odds against C.

A-3. If the letters of the word BANANA are arranged randomly, then find the probability that the word thus formed
does not contain the pattern BAN.

A-4. Nine cards are labelled 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Two cards are drawn at random and put on a table in a
sucessive order, and then the resulting number is read say 07(seven), 42(fourty two) and so on. Find the
probability that the number is even.

A-5. In a box , there are 8 alphabets cards with the letters: S, S, A, A,A, H, H, H. Find the probability that the
word ‘ASH’ will form if:
(i) the three cards are drawn one by one & placed on the table in the same order that they are drawn.
(ii) the three cards are drawn simultaneously .

A-6. (i) A rectangle is randomly selected from the grid of equally spaced squares as shown.

Find the probability that the rectangle is a square.

(ii) Three of the six vertices of a regular hexagon are chosen at random. Find the probability that the
triangle with three vertices is equilateral

A-7. In throwing a pair of dice, find whether the two events

(i) E1 : ‘coming up of an odd number on first die’ and E2 : ‘coming up of a total of 8’.
(ii) E1 : ‘coming up of 4 on first die’ and E2 : ‘coming up of 5 on the second die’.
are mutually exclusive or not

A-8. A pair of fair dice is thrown. Find the probability that the maximum of the two numbers is greater than 4.

A-9. Before a race the chance of three runners, A, B, C were estimated to be proportional to 5, 3, 2, but during the
race A meets with an accident which reduces his chance to 1/3. What are the respective chance of B and C
now?

A-10. In a throw of a pair of dice,find the probability of ‘A total of 8 but not 11’.

A-11. Six boys and six girls sit in a row at random. find the probability that boys and girls sit alternately

A-12. Four persons draw 4 cards from an ordinary pack : find the chance (1) that a card is of each suit, (2) that no
two cards are of equal value.

Section (B) : Problems based on venn diagram & set theory (PRVD)
20
Probability

B-1. Three distinct numbers are selected from first 100 natural numbers. The probability that all the three numbers
are divisible by 2 and 3 is
3 2
B-2. If P(A) = and P(B) = then –
5 3
(A) P(A  B) (B) P(A  B) (C) P(A  B)

B-3. If P(A) = 0.4, P(B) = 0.48 and P(A  B) = 0.16, then find the value of each of the following :
(i) P(A  B) (ii) P( A 'B ) (iii) P(A  B)

B-4. In a batch of 10 articles, 4 articles are defective. 6 articles are taken from the batch for inspection. If
more than 2 articles in this batch are defective , the whole batch is rejected Find the probability that the
batch will be rejected.

B-5. One hundred management students who read at least one of the three business magazines are surveyed to
study the readership pattern. It is found that 80 read Business India, 50 read Business world and 30 read
Business Today. Five students read all the three magazines. A student was selected randomly. Find the
probability that he reads exactly two magazines.

Section (C) : Problems based on Conditional Probability/ Total probability & Bayes
theorem

C-1. (i) In a two child family, one child is a boy. What is the probability that the other child is a girl ?
(ii) If the older child is a boy, then probability that the second child is a girl is

C-2. A fair die is thrown untill a score of less than 5 points is obtained. Find the probability of obtaining not less
than 2 points on the last thrown

C-3. A box contains 5 radio tubes of which 2 are defective . The tubes are tested one after the other until the 2
defective tubes are discovered . Find the probability that the process stopped on the
(i) Second test; (ii) Third test. If the process stopped on the third test , find the probability that the first tube
is non defective.

C-4. The odds against a certain event are 5 to 2, and the odds in favor of another event independent of the former
are 6 to 5 : find the chance that one at least of the events will happen.

C-5. A, B, C in order draws a card from a pack of cards, replacing them after each draw, on condition that the first
who draws a spade shall win a prize : find their respective chances.

C-6. 6 persons A,B,C,D,E,F are arranged in row. Find the conditional probability that C & D are separated given
that A & B are together.

C-7. 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.

C-8. Box – I contains 5 red and 2 blue balls while box – II contains 2 red and 6 blue balls. A fair coin is
tossed. If it turns up head, a ball is drawn from box–I, else a ball is drawn from box–II. Find the
probability of each of the following :
(i) A red ball is drawn (ii) Ball drawn is from box–I if it is blue

21
Probability

C-9. Two cards are drawn successively from a well-shuffled ordinary deck of 52-playing cards without
replacement and is noted that the second card is a king. Find the probability of the event ‘first card is
also a king’.

C-10. India plays 2,3 and 5 matches against Pakistan, Srilanka and Australia respectively. Probability that India
win a match against Pakistan, Srilanka and Australia is 0.6, 0.5 and 0.4 respectively. If India win a match,
then the probability that it was against Pakistan is :

C-11. In a building programme the event that all the materials will be delivered at the correct time is M, and the
event that the building programme will be completed on time is F. Given that P(M) = 0.8 & P(M  F) = 0.65.
If P(F) = 0.7, find the probability that the building programme will be completed on time if all the materials are
not delivered at the correct time.

C-12. 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 .

Section (D) : Problem based on Binomial Distribution / Expectation / mean & Variance

D-1. South African cricket captain lost the toss of a coin 13 times out of 14. The chance of this happening
was

D-2. Anand plays with Karpov 3 games of chess. The probability that he wins a game is 0.5, looses with probabil-
ity 0.3 and ties with probability 0.2. If he plays 3 games then find the probability that he wins atleast two
games.

D-3. Numbers are selected at random , one at a time, from the two digit numbers 00, 01, 02, ..... , 99 with
replacement. An event E occurs if & only if the product of the two digits of a selected number is 18. If four
numbers are selected, find the probability that the event E occurs at least 3 times.

D-4. A room has three electric lamps . From a collection of 10 electric bulbs of which 6 are good 3 are selected at
random & put in the lamps. Find the probability that the room is lighted.

D-5. 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
successes. It is given that the above experiment is performed 3-times, with replacement

D-6. A coin is tossed 5-times. Find the mean and variance of the probability distribution of appearance of
heads on the tosses.

PART - II : OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

Section (A) : Problems based on Classical definition of Probability (PRCD)

A-1. In drawing of a card from a well shuffled ordinary deck of playing cards the events ‘card drawn is spade’
and ‘card drawn is an ace’ are
(A) mutually exclusive (B) equally likely
(C) forming an exhaustive system (D) none of these

A-2. 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 :
(A) 7/9 (B) 8/9 (C) 1/9 (D) 2/9

22
Probability

A-3. Entries of a 2 × 2 determinant are chosen from the set {–1, 1}. This probability that determinant has zero
value is
1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) none of these
4 3 2

A-4. A die is thrown a fixed number of times. If probability of getting even number 3 times is same as the
probability of getting even number 4 times, then probability of getting even number exactly once is
1 3 5 7
(A) (B) (C) (D)
4 128 64 128

A-5. A and B throw with two dice ; if A throws 9, find B’s chance of throwing a higher number.
1 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
6 4 3 2

A-6. If an integer q is chosen at random in the interval – 10  q  10, then the probability that the roots of the
3q
equation x2 + qx + + 1 = 0 are real is
4
16 15 14 17
(A) (B) (C) (D)
21 21 21 21

A-7. The chance that a 13 card combination from a pack of 52 playing cards is dealt to a player in a game
of bridge, in which 9 cards are of the same suit, is
4 . 13 C9 . 39
C4 4! . 13 C9 . 39
C4 13
C9 . 39
C4
(A) 52 (B) 52 (C) 52 (D) none of these
C13 C13 C13

A-8. A bag contains 7 tickets marked with the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 respectively. A ticket is drawn &
replaced. Then the chance that after 4 drawings the sum of the numbers drawn is 8 is:
(A) 165/2401 (B) 149/2401 (C) 3/49 (D) none

A-9. A & B having equal skill, are playing a game of best of 5 points. After A has won two points & B has won
one point, the probability that A will win the game is:
(A) 1/2 (B) 2/3 (C) 3/4 (D) none

Section (B) : Problems based on venn diagram & set theory (PRVD)

B-1. If two subsets A and B of set S containing n elements are selected at random, then the probability that
A  B =  and A  B = S is
4
1 1 3 1
(A) (B) (C)   (D)
2 2 n
4 3n

B-2 If the integers m and n are chosen at random from 1 to 100, then the probability that a number of the form
7m + 7n is divisible by 5 equals
1 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
4 7 8 49

1  1
B-3. Let A and B be two events such that P( A  B )  , P(A B) = and P( A )  , where A stands for
6 4 4
complement of event A. Then events A and B are :
(A) mutually exclusive and independent (B) independent but not equally likely
(C) equally likely but not independent (D) equally likely and mutually exclusive

23
Probability

Section (C) : Problems based on Conditional Probability/ Total probability & Baye's
theorem
1 A 1 B 2
C-1. It is given that the events A and B are such that P(A) = , P  = and P   = . Then, P(B) is
4 B 2 A 3

1 1 2 1
(1) (2) (3) (4)
6 3 3 2

C-2. A six faced fair die is thrown until 1 comes, then the probability that 1 comes in even number of trials
is
5 5 6 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
11 6 11 6

C-3. The odds that a book will be favourably reviewed by three independent critics 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?

209 225 263 149

(A) (B) (C) (D)
343 343 343 343

C-4. In throwing a pair of dice, the events ‘coming up of 6 on Ist die’ and ‘a total of 7 on both the dies’ are
(A) mutually exclusive (B) forming an exhaustive system
(C) independent (D) dependent

C-5. An instrument consists of two units. Each unit must function for the instrument to operate. The reliability of
the first unit is 0.9 and that of the second unit is 0.8. The instrument is tested & fails. The probability that
“only the first unit failed & the second unit is sound” is “
1 2 3 4
(A) (B) (C) (D)
7 7 7 7

C-6. 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.
25 26 25 24
(A) (B) (C) (D)
51 51 52 51

C-7. 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.

2 1 4 5
(A) (B) (C) (D)
3 3 9 9

C-8. 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?

1 6 2 4
(A) (B) (C) (D)
6 11 13 13

24
Probability

C-9. Pal’s gardner is not dependable, the probability that he will forgot to water the rose bush is 2/3. The rose
bush is in questionable condition. Any how if watered, the probability of its withering is 1/2 & if not watered
then the probability of its withering is 3/4. Pal went out of station & after returning he finds that rose bush has
withered. What is the probability that the gardner did not water the rose bush.
(A) 3/4 (B) 2/5 (C) 1/4 (D) 1/2

C-10. A die is weighted so that the probability of different faces to turn up is as given

Number 1 2 3 4 5 6
Probability 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.2
If P(A/B) = p1 and P(B/C) = p2 and P(C/A) = p3 then the values of p1, p2, p3 respectively are -
Take the events A, B & C as A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {2, 3, 5} and C = {2, 4, 6}
2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1
(A) , , (B) , , (C) , , (D) , ,
3 3 4 3 3 6 4 3 6 3 6 4

Section (D) : Problem based on Binomial Distribution/Expectation/ mean & Variance

D-1. A bag contains 2 white & 4 black balls. A ball is drawn 5 times, each being replaced before another is
drawn. The probability that atleast 4 of the balls drawn are white is:
(A) 4/81 (B) 10/243 (C) 11/243 (D) none

D-2. In a series of 3 independent trials the probability of exactly 2 success is 12 times as large as the
probability of 3 successes. The probability of a success in each trial is:
(A) 1/5 (B) 2/5 (C) 3/5 (D) 4/5

D-3. A pair of fair dice is thrown independently three times. The probability of getting a score of exactly 9 twice
is
(A) 1/729 (B) 8/9 (C) 8/729 (D) 8/243

D-4. A coin is tossed n times, what is the chance that the head will present itself an odd number of times?
(A) 1/4 (B) 1/2 (C) 3/4 (D) 2/3

D-5. From a bag containing 2 one rupee and 3 two rupee coins a person is allowed to draw 2 coins randemly; find
the value of his expectation.
(A) 1.6 (B) 2. 8 (C) 3.20 (D) 3.6

D-6. A & B throw with one dice for a stake of Rs. 99/- which is to be won by the player who first throws 4. If
A has the first throw then their respective expectations of rupees are:
(A) 50 & 49 (B) 54 & 45 (C) 45 & 54 (D) none

D-7. A fair coin is tossed 99 times. If X is the number of times heads occur, then sum of possible values of
r when P (X = r) is maximum
(A) 49 (B) 50 (C) 99 (D) 104

25
Probability

Exercise-2 (Silver)
PART - I : ONLY ONE OPTION CORRECT TYPE
1. A local post office is to send M telegrams which are distributed at random over N communication
channels, (N > M). Each telegram is sent over any channel with equal probability. Chance that not
more than one telegram will be sent over each channel is:
N N N N
CM . M ! CM . N ! CM . M ! CM . N !
(A) (B) (C) 1  (D) 1 
NM MN MN NM

2. A cube painted red on all sides, is cut into 125 equal small cubes. A small cube when picked up is found to
show red colour on one of its faces.Then the probability that two more faces also show red colour.

4 4 8 3
(A) (B) (C) (D)
49 120 49 49

3. A car is parked by an owner in a parking lot of 25 cars in a row, including his car not at either end. On
his return he finds that exactly 15 placed are still occupied. The probability that both the neighboring
places are empty is
91 15 15 17
(A) (B) (C) (D)
276 184 92 92

4. A has 3 tickets in a lottery containing 3 prizes and 9 blanks; B has 2 tickets in a lottery containing 2 prizes
and 6 blanks : compare their chances of success
425
(A) 952 / 715 (B) 950 / 952 (C) 952 / 710 (D)
952

5. A 2n digit number starts with 2 and all its digits are prime, then the probability that the sum of all 2 consecu-
tive digits of the number is prime, is
(A) 4 × 23n (B) 4 × 2–3n (C) 23n (D) none of these

6. A fair coin is tossed eight times, then the probability that resulting sequence of heads and tails looks the
same when viewed from the beginning or from the end is :
(A) 1/2 (B) 1/4 (C) 1/8 (D) 1/16

7. An urn contains 'm' green and 'n' red balls. K (< m, n) balls are drawn and laid aside, their colur being ignored.
Then one more ball is drawn.Then probability that it is green.

2n n m m
(A) (B) (C) (D)
mn mn 2(m  n) mn

8. In a regular decagon find the probability that the two diagonal chosen at random will intersect inside the
polygon.
6 12 5 3
(A) (B) (C) (D)
17 17 17 17

9. An urn contains m white and n black balls. A ball is drawn at random and is put back into the urn along
with k additional balls of the same colour as that of the ball drawn. A ball is again drawn at random.
What is the probability that the ball drawn now is white ?
n n m m
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2(m  n) mn 2(m  n) mn
26
Probability

10. There are two urns. There are m white & n black balls in the first urn and p white & q black balls in the
second urn. One ball is taken from the first urn & placed into the second. Now, the probability of
drawing a white ball from the second urn is:
pm  (p  1)n (p  1)m  pn qm  (q  1)n (q  1)m  qn
(A) (m  n)(p  q  1) (B) (m  n)(p  q  1) (C) (m  n)(p  q  1) (D) (m  n)(p  q  1)

11. One Indian and four American men and their wives are to be seated randomly around a circular table. Then
the conditional probability that the Indian man is seated adjacent to his wife given that each American man
is seated adjacent to his wife is
1 1 2 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2 3 5 5

12. A fair coin is tossed 9 times the probability that at least 5 consecutive heads occurs is
9
5 3  1 5
(A) (B) (C) C5  
9
(D)
64 32 2 29

13. 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?

32 23 20 32
(A) (B) (C) 23 (D)
41 32 51

14. 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 the share of A.
(A) 130 (B) 240 (C) 200 (D) 190

15. An experiment has 10 equally likely outcomes. Let A and B be non-empty events of the experiment. If A
consists of 4 outcomes, the number of outcomes that B must have so that A and B are independent, is
(A) 2, 4 or 8 (B) 3, 6 or 9 (C) 4 or 8 (D) 5 or 10

16. From (4m + 1) tickets numbered as 1, 2, 3, .......... 4m + 1; three tickets are chosen at random. Then the
probability that the numbers are in A.P. with even common difference is :

2(2m  1) 3(2m  1) 3(2m  1) 3(2m  1)

(A) (B) (C) (D)
3(16m2  1) m(16m2  1) (16m2  1) 2(16m2  1)

17. 'A' writes a letter to his friend 'B' and does not receive a reply. It is known that one out of 'n' letters does not
reach its destination. The probability that 'B' didn't receive the letter is (It is certain that 'B' would have replied,
if he had received the letter)
1 1 2n  1 n
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2 2n  1 n2 2n  1

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

328 224 312 372

(A) (B) (C) (D)
625 625 625 625

27
Probability
19. A sphere is circumscribed over a cube. Find the probability that a point lies inside the sphere, lies outside the
cube.
2 1 1 2
(A) 1 – (B) 1  (C) 1  (D) 1 
 3  3 2 3 2 3

20. 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.
24 48 42 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
25  25  25  2

21. The sides of a rectangle are chosen at random, each less than 10 cm, all such lengths being equally
likely. The chance that the diagonal of the rectangle is less than 10 cm is
(A) 1/10 (B) 1/20 (C) /4 (D) /8

22. Eight letter word can be formed using all the letters A,A,B,B,C,C,D,E. A word is selected at random then the
probability such that no two identical letters appear together
43 17 23 37
(A) (B) (C) (D)
84 84 84 84

PART - II : ONE OR MORE THAN ONE OPTION CORRECT TYPE

1. In throwing a die let A be the event ‘coming up of an odd number’, B be the event ‘coming up of an even
number’, C be the event ‘coming up of a number  4’ and D be the event ‘coming up of a number < 3’,
then
(A) A and B are mutually exclusive and exhautive
(B) A and C are mutually exclusive and exhautive
(C) A, C and D form an exhautive system
(D) B, C and D form an exhautive system

2. If M & N are any two events, then which one of the following represents the probability of the occurence
of exactly one of them ?
(A) P (M) + P (N)  2 P (M  N) (B) P (M) + P (N)  P (M  N)

   
(C) P M + P N  2 P M  N    
(D) P M  N + P M  N  
3. Let 0 < P(A) < 1, 0 < P(B) < 1 & P(A  B) = P(A) + P(B)  P(A). P(B), then:
(A) P(B/A) = P(B)  P(A) (B) P(AC  BC) = P(AC) + P(BC)
(C) P((A  B)C) = P(AC). P(BC) (D) P(A/B) = P(A)

4. A box contains 11 tickets numbered from 1 to 11. Two tickets are drawn similtaneously at random.
Let E1 denotes the event that the sum of the numbers on the tickets drawn is even
and E2 denotes the event that the sum of the numbers on the tickets drawn is odd
Which of the following hold good?
(A) P(E1/E2) = P(E2/E1) (B) E1 and E2 are exhaustive
(C) P(E2) > P(E1) (D) E1 and E2 are equally likely

5. The probabilities of events, A  B, A, B & A  B are respectively in A.P. with second term equal to the
common difference. Therefore A & B are:
(A) mutually exclusive
(B) independent
(C) such that one of them must occur
(D) such that one is twice as likely as the other

28
Probability
6. A bag contains four tickets marked with numbers 112, 121, 211, 222. One ticket is drawn at random
from the bag. Let Ei(i = 1, 2, 3) denote the event that ith digit on the ticket is 2. Then
(A) E1 and E2 are independent (B) E2 and E3 are independent
(C) E3 and E1 are independent (D) E1, E2, E3 are independent

7. In an experimental performance of a single throw of a pair of unbiased normal dice, three events E 1, E2
& E3 are defined as follows:
E1: getting a prime numbered face on each dice
E2: getting the same number on each dice
E3: getting a sum total of dots on two dice equal to 8. Then:
(A) the events E 1, E2 & E3 are mutually exclusive
(B) the events E 1, E2 & E3 are not pairwise mutually exclusive
(C) the events E1, E2 are independent
(D) P(E3E1) = 2/9.

8. The probability that a bulb produced by a factory will fuse after an year of use is 0.1. Then the probability
that out of 4 such bulbs
94
(A) None of bulb will fuse after an year of use
10 4
1
(B) more than 3 will fuse after an year of use
10 4
9999
(C) not more than 3 will fuse after an year of use
10000
1
(D) All the bulbs will fuse after an year of use
10 4

9. If 4 whole numbers taken at random are multiplied together,

16
(A) probability that the last digit in the product is 1, 3, 7 or 9 is
625

369
(B) probability that the last digit in the product is '5' is
10 4
3727
(C) probability that the last digit in the product is '0' is
10 4
2357
(D) probability that the last digit in the product is '0' is
10 4

10. The probability that 4th power of a positive integer ends in the digit k isP(k)

4 4 1 1
(A)P(6)= (B)P(1)= (C) P(5)= (D) P(0)=
10 10 10 10

11. Mean and variance of a Binomial variate in 10 trials of the experiment is are in the ratio of 3 : 2. Then

(A)The most probable number of happening of the variable is 3

(B)sum of mean and variance is 10
8064
(C)probability og getting exactly 5 success is
310
(D)The most probable number of happening of the variable is 5

29
Probability

12. A student appears for tests I, II & III. The student is successful if he passes either in tests I & II or tests
I & III. The probabilities of the student passing in the tests I, II & III are p, q &
1/2 respectively. If the probability that the student is successful is 1/2, then:
(A) p = 1, q = 0 (B) p = 2/3, q = 1/2
(C) p = 3/5, q = 2/3 (D) there are infinitely many values of p & q.

13. A student has to match three historical events i.e. Dandi March, Quit India Movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s
assasination with the years 1948, 1930 and 1942 and each event happens in different years . The student
has no knowledge of the correct answers and decides to match the events and years randomly. Let Ei : (0 
i  3) denote the event that the student gets exactly i correct answer, then
(A) P(Eo) + P(E3) = P(E1) (B) P(Eo) . P(E1) = P(E3)
(C) P(E0  E1) = P(E2) (D) P(E0) + P(E1) + P(E3) = 1

14. For any two events A & B defined on a sample space,

P (A)  P (B)  1
(A) P A B  , P (B)  0 is always true
P (B)
 
(B) P A  B = P (A) - P (A  B)
(C) P (A  B) = 1 - P (Ac). P (Bc), if A & B are independent
(D) P (A  B) = 1 - P (Ac). P (Bc), if A & B are disjoint

15. An unbiased coin is tossed n times. Let X denote the number of times head occurs. If
P(X = 4), P (X = 5) and P(X = 6) are in AP, then the value of n can be
(A) 7 (B) 10 (C) 12 (D) 14
1
16. A and B are two independent events. The probability that A and B happen simultaneously is and neither
12

1
A nor B happens is , then which of the following are true :
2
1 1 1 1
(A) P(A) = , P(B) = (B) P(A) = , P(B) =
3 4 2 6
1 1 1 1
(C) P(A) = , P(B) = (D) P(A) = , P(B) =
4 3 6 2

17. 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)then
(A) probability that they all miss the target is .21
(B) probability that the target is hit at least once .79
(C) If only one hits the target, what is the probability that it was the first man is 9/44
(D) probability that the target is hit exactly once.44

30
Probability

Exercise-3 (Gold)
PART - I : SINGLE AND DOUBLE DIGIT INTEGER TYPE/NUMERICAL VALUE

1. Starting at (0, 0) an object moves in coordinate plane by a sequence of steps, each of length one. Each step
is left, right up or down, all four equally likely. If the probability that the object reaches (2, 2) in six or fewer

p
steps is ,where p and q are coprime then p+q is?
q

2. Two cards are drawn from a well shuffled pack of 52 cards. The probability that one of them is a red

p
card & the other is a queen is
q
, where p and q are coprime then sum of digits of q is.

3. In a multiple choice question there are 4 alternative answers of which 1, 2, 3 or all may be correct. A
candidate will get marks in the question only if he ticks all the correct answer. The candidate decides
to tick answers at random. If he is allowed upto 5 chances to answer the question, If probability that he
will get the marks in the question is P then 3P is equal to?

4. 3 firemen X, Y and Z shoot at a common target. The probabilities that X and Y can hit the target are
2/3 and 3/4 respectively. If the probability that exactly two bullets are found on the target is 11/24, then
reciprocal of the probability of Z to hit the target.

5. A card is drawn from a pack, the card is replaced & the pack shuffled. If this is done 6 times, the
p
probability that the cards drawn are 2 hearts, 2 diamonds & 2 black cards is
q
, where p and q are
coprime then proper divisors of pq is

6. A covered basket of flowers has some lilies and roses. In search of rose, Sweety and Shweta alternately pick
up a flower from the basket but puts it back if it is not a rose. Sweety is 3 times more likely to be the first one
to pick a rose. If sweety begin this 'rose hunt' and if there are 60 lilies in the basket, If the number of roses in
the basket is 'k 'then no of positive divisiors of 'k' are

7. There is a three volume dictionary among 40 books arranged on a shelf in random order. Then reciprocal
probability of these volumes standing in increasing order from left to right (the volumes are not necessarily
kept side by side) is:

8. 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
i2 1
balls. The selection of each urn is not equally likely. The probability of selecting i th 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
p
white is
q
,where p and q are coprime then sum of digits of p is :

31
Probability
9. In a Nigerian hotel, among the english speaking people 40% are English & 60% Americans. The English
& American spellings are "RIGOUR" & "RIGOR" respectively. An English speaking person in the hotel
writes this word. A letter from this word is chosen at random & found to be a vowel. Ifthe probability that
a
the writer is an Englishman is then b-a is equal to ?
b

10. Mr.Mangal is a professional tea taster. When given a high grade tea, he will identify it with probability 0.9
correctly as high grade and will mistake it for a low grade tea with probability 0.1 . When given a low grade
tea, he will identify it with probability 0.8 correctly as low grade tea and will mistake it for a high grade tea with
probability 0.2 . Suppose that Mr. Mangal is given ten unlabelled cups of tea, three with high grade and seven
with low grade tea. He randomly picks a cup, tries the tea and Solemnly says “high grade tea”.If the probability
a
that the tea he tasted was low grade tea is express in form of (where a & b are coprime natural number)
b
then 3a-b is equal to ?

11. In a multiple choice question, there are five alternative answers, of which one or more than one are correct.
A candidate will get marks on the question if he ticks all the correct answers. If he decides to tick answers
at random, how many minimum chaces should he be allowed so that the probability of his getting marks on
1
the question exceeds .
8

12. 3 cards are given, one of them is red on both sides, one is blue on both sides & one is blue on one side
and red on the other side. One of them is chosen randomly & put on the table. It shows red colour on
a
the upper side. If the probability of the other side of the card being red is (where a & b are coprime
b
natural number) then b-a is equal to?

13. In a purse there are 10 coins, all 5 paise except one which is a rupee. In another purse there are 10
coins all 5 paise. 9 coins are taken out from the former purse & put into the latter & then 9 coins are
taken out from the latter & put into the former. Then the chance that the rupee is still in the first purse
is p then 19p-9 is equal to?

14. Each packet of blades sold contains a coupon which is equally likely to bear the letters A, B or C. If '6'

p
packets are purchased, If the probability that the coupan can not be used to spell BAC is where p,q are
q

relatively prime then p+q is equal to?

15. The number ‘a’ and 'b' are randomly selected from the set of natural numbers. . Probability that the number
p
3a + 7b has a digit equal to 8 at the units place, is where p,q are relatively prime then p+q is equal to?
q

16. Suppose that of all used cars of a particular year, 30% have bad brakes. You are considering buying a used
car of that year. You take the car to a mechanic to have the brakes checked. The chance that the mechanic
will give you wrong report is 20%. Assuming that the car you take to the mechanic is selected " at random"
from the population of cars of that year. The odds in favor of the chance that the car's brakes are good given
that the mechanic says its brakes are good is p:q then p-7q (where p & q are coprime natural number)is
equal to

32
Probability

17. A bag contains (n + 1) coins. It is known that one of these coins has a head on both sides, whereas the
other coins are normal. One of these coins is selected at random & tossed. If the probability that the
toss results in head, is 7/12, then the value of n is.

18. In a certain factory machines A, B and C produce bolts. of their production A, B and C produce 2%, 1% and
3% defective bolts respectively. Machine A produces 35% of the total output of bolts machine B produces
25% and machine C produces 40%. A bolts is chosen at random from the factory’s production and its found
to be defective. The odds in favor that it was produced on machine C is p:q then p-q is equal to (where p &
q are coprime natural number)

19. In each of a set of games it is 2 to 1 in favor of the winner of the previous game . If the chance that the player
who wins the first game shall win three at least of the next four is p/q then pq is equal to?(p and q are
coprime)

20. A person goes to office either by car, scooter, bus or train, the probability of which being
1 3 2 1
, , and respectively. Probability that he reaches office late, if he takes car, scooter, bus or
7 7 7 7
2 1 4 1
train is , , and respectively. Given that he reached office in time, then reciprocal ofthethe
9 9 9 9
probability that he travelled by a car.

21. During a power blackout, 100 persons are arrested on suspect of looting. Each is given a polygraph test.
From past experience it is know 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 is

1 1 1
22. A couple has one or two or three children with probability , and respetively. Probability of a couple
4 2 4

a
having exactly four grandchildren in such a type of society is then sum of the digit of b equals (where a &
b

b are coprime natural number)

23. A gambler has one rupee in his pocket. He tosses an unbiased normal coin unless either he is ruined or
unless the coin has been tossed for a maximum of five times. If for each head he wins a rupee and for each

a
tail he looses a rupee, then if the probability that the gambler is ruined is (where a & b are coprime natural
b

number) then a+b is

33
Probability

PART - II : MATCH THE COLUMN & COMPREHENSIONS

1. Column –  Column – 

(A) If the probability that units digit in square of an even integer is 4 (p) 1
is p, then the value of 5p is
1
(B) If A and B are independent events and P(A  B) = , (q) 2
6

1 B
P(A) = , then 6P   =
3 A

(C) One mapping is selected at random from all mappings of (r) 3

the set S = {1, 2, 3, ......, n} into itself. If the probability that
3
the mapping is one-one is , then the value of n is
32

(D) A boy has 20% chance of hitting at a target. Let p denote (s) 4
the probability of hitting the target for the first time at the nth
trial. If p satisfies the inequality 625p2 – 175p + 12  0, then
value of n is

2. Column –  Column – 

(A) A pair of dice is thrown. If total of numbers turned up (p) 5/16

on both the dies is 8, then the probability that the
number turn up on the second die is 5’ is
(B) A box contains 4 white and 3 black balls. Two balls are (q) 1/3
drawn successively and is found that second ball is
white, then the probability that Ist ball is also white is
1
(C) A biased coin with probability p, 0 < p < 1 of heads is (r)
2
tossed until a head appears for the first time. If the
probability that the number of tosses required is even is 2/5,
then p equals
1
(D) A coin whose faces are marked 3 and 5 is tossed 4 times : what (s)
5
is the probability that the sum of the numbers thrown being less,
than 15?

3. A student bunks the class of probability and equally likely to choose one of the four regions : (FatehSagar
Lake(R-I); Pichola Lake(R-II); Celebration Mall(R-III); Lakecity Mall(R-IV) to reach away from the eye of
teacher. If he chooses R-I he is successful with probability 1/6 and for R-II; R-III; R-IV this is 1/8, 1/10, 1/12
respectively. If the student is successful, then the probability that he chooses the region
Column I7 Column II
(A)  (P) 12/57
(B)  (Q) 15/57
(C)  (R) 20/57
(D) IV (S) 10/57
(T) 9/57
34
Probability

Comprehension # 1
A party of 'n' men of whom A, B are sitting in a row. What is the chance that

4. A, B are next one another

1 2 1 2
(A) (B) (C) (D)
n(n – 1) n(n – 1) n n

5. Exactly 'm' men are between them.

4(n – m) 2(n – m – 1) 2(n – m – 2) 2

(A) (B) (C) (D)
n(n – 1) n(n – 1) n(n – 1) n–m

6. Not more than 'm' men are between them

(m  1)(2n  m  2) (n – m – 2)(n – m – 1)
(A) (B)
n(n  1) n(n  1)

m(n – 2m – 2)
(C) (D) none of these
n(n – 1)
Comprehension : # 2
A JEE aspirant estimates that he will be successful with an 80 percent chance if he studies 10 hours per day,
with a 60 percent chance if he studies 7 hours per day and with a 40 percent chance if he studies 4 hours per
day. He further believes that he will study 10 hours, 7 hours and 4 hours per day with probabilities 0.1, 0.2
and 0.7 respectively.

7. The chance he will be successfull is

(A) 0.28 (B) 0.38 (C) 0.48 (D) 0.58

8. Given that he is successful the chance he studied for 4 hours, is

6 7 8 9
(A) (B) (C) (D)
12 12 12 12

9. Given that he does not achieve success, the chance the studied for 4 hour, is
18 19 20 21
(A) (B) (C) (D)
26 26 26 26

Comprehension : # 3
A die is rolled and probability of showing any number is directly proportional to that number. If prime number
appears then a ball is chosen from urn A containing 2 white and 3 black balls otherwise a ball is chosen from
urn B containing 3 white and 2 black balls. Then

10. The probability of drawing a black ball is :

49 10 51 52
(A) (B) (C) (D)
105 21 105 105

11. If a white ball is drawn, then the probability that it is from urn B is :

32 33 35 36
(A) (B) (C) (D)
53 53 53 53

35
Probability

Comprehension #4
There are n urns numbered 1 to n. The ith urn contains i white and (n + 1 – i) black balls. Let Ei denote the
event of selecting ith urn at random and let W denote the event that the ball drawn from the selected urn is
white.

12. If P(Ei)  i for i = 1, 2, ......, n, then nlim


P(W) is

2 1 3 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
3 3 4 4

13. If P(Ei) = c, a constant i, then P(En | W) is

2 1 n 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
n1 n1 n1 2

1
14. If n is even and P(Ei) =  i and E denotes the event of choosing even numbered urn, then P(W | E) is
n

1 n4 n2 n1

(A) (B) (C) (D)
2n 2(n  1) 2(n  1) 2n

Comprehension : # 5
A bag contain 6 Red and 4 White balls. 4 balls are drawn one by one without replacement and were found
to be atleast 2 white.

15. Then the probablity that next draw of a ball from this bag will give a white ball.
34 19 90 24
(A) (B) (C) (D)
115 115 115 115

16. If the next draw of a ball from this bag will give a white ball then the probablity that the drawn of four balls
initially contain two white and two red balls.
8 15 13 13
(A) (B) (C) (D)
17 17 17 34

36
Probability

Exercise-4 (Platinum)
PART - I : JEE MAIN QUESTIONS

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

9
, then n is greater than : [AIEEE 2009 (4, –1), 144]
10
1 9 4 1
(1) log 4  log 3 (2) log 4  log 3 (3) log 4  log 3 (4) log 4  log 3
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

2. One ticket is selected at random from 50 tickets numbered 00, 01, 02, ....., 49. Then the probability that the
sum of the digits on the selected ticket is 8, given that the product of these digits is zero, equal :
[AIEEE 2009 (4, –1), 144]
1 5 1 1
(1) (2) (3) (4)
7 14 50 14

3. Four numbers are chosen at random (without replacement) from the set {1,2,3,.....,20}.
Statement -1 : The probability that the chosen numbers when arranged in some order will form an AP is
1
. [AIEEE 2010 (8, –2), 144]
85
Statement -2 : If the four chosen numbers form an AP, then the set of all possible values of common
difference is {±1, ±2, ±3, ±4, ±5}
(1) Statement -1 is true, Statement-2 is true ; Statement -2 is not a correct explanation for Statement -1.
(2) Statement-1 is true, Statement-2 is false.
(3) Statement -1 is false, Statement -2 is true.
(4) Statement -1 is true, Statement -2 is true; Statement-2 is a correct explanation for Statement-1.

4. An urn contains nine balls of which three are red, four are blue and two are green. Three balls are drawn at
random without replacement from the urn. The probability that the three balls have different colours is
[AIEEE 2010 (4, –1), 144]
2 1 2 1
(1) (2) (3) (4)
7 21 23 3

5. Consider 5 independent Bernoulli’s trials each with probability of success p. If the probability of at least
31
one failure is greater than or equal to , then p lies in the interval : [AIEEE 2011, I, (4, –1), 12]
32

 1 3  3 11   1  11 
(1)  ,  (2)  ,  (3) 0,  (4)  , 1
 2 4  4 12   2  12 

6. If C and D are two events such that C  D and P(D)  0, then the correct statement among the
following is : [AIEEE 2011, I, (4, –1), 120]

(1) P(C|D) = P(C) (2) P(C|D)  P(C)

P(D)
(3) P(C|D) < P(C) (4) P(C|D) =
P(C)

37
Probability

7. Let A, B, C be pariwise independent events with P(C) > 0 and P( A  B  C)  0. [AIEEE 2011, II, (4, –1), 120]
Then P( A c  B c / C ) .
(1) P(1) – P(Bc) (2) P(Ac) + P(Bc) (3) P(Ac) – P(Bc) (4) P(Ac) – P(B)

8. Three numbers are chosen at random without replacement from {1, 2, 3, ..., 8}. The probability that their
minimum is 3, given that their maximum is 6, is : [AIEEE-2012, (4, –1)/120]
3 1 1 2
(1) (2) (3) (4)
8 5 4 5

9. A multiple choice examination has 5 questions. Each question has three alternative answers of which ex-
actly one is correct. The probability that a student will get 4 or more correct answers just by guessing is :
[AIEEE - 2013, (4, – ¼) 120]

17 13 11 10
(1) 5 (2) 5 (3) 5 (4)
3 3 3 35

1 1
10. 
Let A and B be two event such that P A  B 
1
6

, P(A  B) =
4 4

and P A  , where A stands for the

complement of the event A. Then the events A and B are : [JEE(Main) 2014, (4, – ¼), 120]
(1) independent but not equally likely
(2) independent and equally likely
(3) mutually exclusive and independent
(4) equally likely but not independent

11. If 12 identical balls are to be placed in 3 identical boxes, then the probability that one of the boxes contains
exactly 3 balls is : [IIT JEE Main 2015]

11 11 10 12
 1 55  2  2  1
(1) 22   (2)   (3) 55   (4) 220  
3 3 3 3 3

12. Let two fair six-faced dice A and B be thrown simultaneously. If E1 is the event that die A shows up four, E2
is the event that die B shows up two and E3 is the event that the sum of numbers on both dice is odd, then
which of the following statements is NOT true ? [IIT JEE Main 2016]
(1) E1 and E2 are independent (2) E2 and E3 are independent
(3) E1 and E3 are independent (4) E1, E2 and E3 are independent

13. A box contains 15 green and 10 yellow balls. If 10 balls are randomly drawn, one-by-one, with replacement,
then the variance of the number of green balls drawn is : [IIT JEE Main 2017]

6 12
(1) 4 (2) (3) (4) 6
25 5

14. If two different numbers are taken from the set {0, 1, 2, 3, .........., 10} ; then the probability that their sum as
well as absolute difference are both multiple of 4, is : [IIT JEE Main 2017]
14 7 6 12
(1) (2) (3) (4)
45 55 55 55

38
Probability

15. For three events A, B and C, P(Exactly one of A or B occurs) = P(Exactly one of B or C occurs) = P (Exactly

1 1
one of C or A occurs) = and P(All the three events occur simultaneously) = . Then the probability that
4 16

at least one of the events occurs, is : [IIT JEE Main 2017]

7 3 7 7
(1) (2) (3) (4)
64 16 32 16

16. A bag contains 4 red and 6 balck balls. A ball is drawn at random from the bag, its colour is observed and
this ball along with two additional balls of the same colour are returned to the bag. If now a ball is drawn at
random from the bag, then the probability that this drawn ball is red, is [JEE(Main) 2018, (4, – 1), 120]

1 3 3 2
(1) (2) (3) (4)
5 4 10 5

17. Two cards are drawn successively with replacement from a well-shuffled deck of 52 cards. Let X denote the
random variable of number of aces obtained in the two drawn cards. Then P(X = 1) + P(X = 2) equals :
[JEE(Main) 2019, Online (09-01-19),P-1 (4, – 1), 120]
(1) 52/169 (2) 24/169 (3) 49/169 (4) 25/169

18. Let S = {1,2,…..,20}. A subset B of S is said to be “nice”, if the sum of the elements of B is 203. Then the
probability that a randomly chosen subset of S is “ nice” is :
[JEE(Main) 2019, Online (11-01-19),P-2 (4, – 1), 120]

4 5 7 6
(1) 20 (2) 20 (3) 20 (4)
2 2 2 2 20

19. In a random experiment a fair die is rolled until two fours are obtained in succession the probability that the
experiment will end in the fifth throw of the die is equal
[JEE(Main) 2019, Online (12-01-19),P-1 (4, – 1), 120]

200 175 150 225

(1) 5 ((2) 5 (3) 5 (4)
6 6 6 65

20. In a game, a man wins Rs. 100 if he gets 5 or 6 on a throw of a fair die and loses Rs. 50 for getting any other
number on the die. If he decides to throw the die either till he gets a five or a six or to a maximum of three
throws, then his expected gain/loss (in rupees) is –[JEE(Main) 2019, Online (12-01-19),P-2 (4, – 1), 120]

400 400 400

(1) 0 (2) loss (3) gain (4) loss
9 3 3

21. Let A and B be two non-null events such that B A . Then, which of the following statements is always
correct ? [JEE(Main) 2019, Online (08-04-19),P-1 (4, – 1), 120]
(1) P(A|B)  P(A) (2) P(A|B)  P(A)
(3) P(A|B) = P(B) – P(A) (4) P(A|B) =1

39
Probability

22. The minimum number of times one has to toss a fair coin so that the probability of observing at least one
head is a least 90% is : [JEE(Main) 2019, Online (08-04-19),P-2 (4, – 1), 120]
(1) 3 (2) 2 (3) 5 (4) 4

PART - II : JEE (ADVANCED) / PREVIOUS YEARS SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

Comprehension( Q.1 to Q.3)

A fair die is tossed repeatedly until a six is obtained. Let X denote the number of tosses required.

1. The probability that X = 3 equals [IIT-JEE 2009, Paper-1, (4, –1), 80]

25 25 5 125
(A) (B) (C) (D)
216 36 36 216

2. The probability that X  3 equals [IIT-JEE 2009, Paper-1, (4, –1), 80]
125 25 5 25
(A) (B) (C) (D)
216 36 36 216

3. The conditional probability that X  6 given X > 3 equals [IIT-JEE 2009, Paper-1, (4, –1), 80]
125 25 5 25
(A) (B) (C) (D)
216 216 36 36

4. 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 [IIT-JEE 2010, Paper-1, (3, –1), 84]
1 1 2 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
18 9 9 36

4 1
5. A signal which can be green or red with probability and respectively, is received by station A and then
5 5

3
transmitted to station B. The probability of each station receiving the signal correctly is . If the signal
4
received at station B is green, then the probability that the original signal was green is
[IIT-JEE 2010, Paper-2, (5, –2), 79]
3 6 20 9
(A) (B) (C) (D)
5 7 23 20

Comprehension ( Q.6 & Q.7)

Let U1 and U2 be two urns such that U1 contains 3 white and 2 red balls, and U2 contains only 1 white ball.
A fair coin is tossed. If head appears then 1 ball is drawn at random from U1 and put into U2. However, if tail
appears then 2 balls are drawn at random from U1 and put into U2. Now 1 ball is drawn at random from U2.
[IIT-JEE 2011, Paper-1, (3, –1), 80]

6. The probability of the drawn ball from U2 being white is

13 23 19 11
(A) (B) (C) (D)
30 30 30 30

40
Probability

7. Given that the drawn ball from U2 is white, the probability that head appeared on the coin is
17 11 15 12
(A) (B) (C) (D)
23 23 23 23

11
8. Let E and F be two independent events. The probability that exactly one of them occurs is and the
25
2
probability of none of them occurring is . If P(T) denotes the probability of occurrence of the event T, then
25
[IIT-JEE 2011, Paper-2, (4, 0), 80]

4 3 1 2
(A) P(E) = , P(F) = (B) P(E) = , P(F) =
5 5 5 5
2 1 3 4
(C) P(E) = , P(F) = (D) P(E) = , P(F) =
5 5 5 5

9. A ship is fitted with three engines E1, E2 and E3. The engines function independently of each other with
1 1 1
respective probabilities , and . For the ship to be operational at least two of its engines must
2 4 4
function. Let X denote the event that the ship is operational and let X1, X2 and X3 denotes respectively the
events that the engines E1 E2 and E3 are functioning. Which of the following is (are) true ?
3 7

c

(A) P X1 | x 
16
(B) P[ Exactly two engines of the ship are functioning | X] =
8
5 7
(C) P[X | X2] = (D*) P[X | X1] = [IIT-JEE 2012, Paper-1, (4, 0), 70]
16 16

10. Four fair dice D1, D2, D3 and D4 each having six faces numbered 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 are rolled simultaneously.
The probability that D4 shows a number appearing on one of D1, D2 and D3 is
[IIT-JEE 2012, Paper-2, (3, –1), 66]
91 108 125 127
(A) (B) (C) (D)
216 216 216 216

1 1 1
11. Let X and Y be two events such that P(X | Y) = , P(Y | X) = and P(X  Y) = . Which of the following
2 3 6
is (are) correct ? [IIT-JEE 2012, Paper-2, (4, 0), 66]
2
(A) P(X  Y) = (B) X and Y are independent
3
1
(C) X and Y are not independent (D) P(XC  Y) =
3

1 3 1 1
12. Four persons independently solve a certain problem correctly with probabilities , , , . Then the
2 4 4 8
probability that the problem is solved correctly by at least one of them is
[JEE (Advanced) 2013, Paper-1, (2, 0)/60]

235 21 3 253
(A) (B) (C) (D)
256 256 256 256

41
Probability

13. 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).

Pr obability of occurrence of E1
Then Pr obability of occurrence of E = [JEE (Advanced) 2013, Paper-1, (4, – 1)/60]
3

Paragraph for Question Nos. 14 to 16

A box B1 contains 1 white ball, 3 red balls and 2 black balls. Another box B 2 contains 2 white balls,
3 red balls and 4 black balls. A third box B 3 contains 3 white balls, 4 red balls and 5 black balls.

14. If 1 ball is drawn from each of the boxes B 1, B2 and B3, the probability that all 3 drawn balls are of the
same colour is [JEE (Advanced) 2013, Paper-2, (3, –1)/60]
82 90 558 566
(A) (B) (C) (D)
648 648 648 648

15. If 2 balls are drawn (without replacement) from a randomly selected box and one of the balls is white
and the other ball is red, the probability that these 2 balls are drawn from box B 2 is
[JEE (Advanced) 2013, Paper-2, (3, –1)/60]
116 126 65 55
(A) (B) (C) (D)
181 181 181 181

16. Three boys and two girls stand in a queue. The probability, that the number of boys ahead of every girl
is at least one more than the number of girls ahead of her, is
[JEE (Advanced) 2014, Paper-2, (3, –1)/60]
1 1 2 3
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2 3 3 4

Paragraph For Questions 17 and 18

Box 1 contains three cards bearing numbers 1, 2, 3; box 2 contains five cards bearing numbers 1, 2, 3,
4, 5; and box 3 contains seven cards bearing numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. A card is drawn from each of
the boxes. Let x i be the number on the card drawn from the i th box, i = 1, 2, 3.
JEE (Advanced) 2014, Paper-2, (3, –1)/60]

17. The probability that x 1 + x 2 + x 3 is odd, is

29 53 57 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
105 105 105 2

18. The probability that x1, x2, x3 are in an arithmetic progression, is :

9 10 11 7
(A) (B) (C) (D)
105 105 105 105

19. The minimum number of times a fair coin needs to be tossed, so that the probability of getting at least two
heads is at least 0.96, is [JEE (Advanced) 2015, Paper-1, (4, 0)/88]

42
Probability

Paragraph for question no. 20 to 21

Let n1 and n2 be the number of red and black balls, respectively, in box I. Let n3 and n4 be the number of red
and black balls, respectively, in box II. [JEE (Advanced) 2015, Paper-2, (4, -2)/80]

20. One of the two boxes, box I and box II, was selected at random and a ball was drawn randomly out of this
1
box. The ball was found to be red. If the probability that this red ball was drawn from box II is , then the
3
correct option(s) with the possible values of n1, n2, n3 and n4 is(are)
(A) n1 = 3, n2 = 3, n3 = 5, n4 = 15 (B) n1 = 3, n2 = 6, n3 = 10, n4 = 50
(C) n1 = 8, n2 = 6, n3 = 5, n4 = 20 (D) n1 = 6, n2 = 12, n3 = 5, n4 = 20

21. A ball is drawn at random from box I and transferred to box II. If the probability of drawing a red ball from box
1
I, after this transfer, is , then the correct option(s) with the possible values of n1 and n2 is(are)
3
(A) n1 = 4 and n2 = 6 (B) n1 = 2 and n2 = 3 (C) n1 = 10 and n2 = 20 (D) n1 = 3 and n2 = 6

22 . A computer producing factory has only two plants T1 and T2. Plant T1 produces 20% and plant T2 produces
80% of the total computers produced. 7% of computers produced in the factory turn out to be defective. It
is known that P(computer turns out to be defective given that it is produced in plant T1) = 10 P(computer
turns out to be defective given that it is produced in Plant T2), where P(E) denotes the probability of an event
E. A computer produced in the factory is randomly selected and it does not turn out to be defective. Then
the probability that it is produced in plant T2 is [JEE (Advanced) 2016, Paper-1, (3, –1)/62]

36 47 78 75
(A) (B) (C) (D)
73 79 93 83

Comprehension (Q.23 & 24)

Football teams T1 and T2 have to play two games against each other. It is assumed that the outcomes of the
two games are independent. The probabilities of T1 winning, drawing and losing a game against T2 are

1 1 1
, and respectively. Each team gets 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 point for a loss in a
2 6 3

game. Let X and Y denote the total points scored by teams T1 and T2, respectively, after two games.
[JEE (Advanced) 2016, Paper-2, (3, –1)/62]

23. P (X > Y) is

1 5 1 7
(A) (B) (C) (D)
4 12 2 12

24. P (X = Y) is

11 1 13 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
36 3 36 2

43
Probability

1 1 2
25. Let X and Y be two events such that P( X)  , P( X | Y )  and P( Y | X)  . Then
3 2 5

[JEE(Advanced) 2017, Paper-1,(4, –2)/61]

4 1 2 1
(A) P( Y )  (B) P( X' | Y )  (C) P( X  Y )  (D) P( X  Y ) 
15 2 5 5

26. Three randomly chosen nonnegative integers x, y and z are found to satisfy the equation x + y + z = 10.
Then the probability that z is even, is [JEE(Advanced) 2017, Paper-2,(3, –1)/61]

1 36 6 5
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2 55 11 11

Comprehension (Q.27 & 28)

There are five students S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 in a music class and for them there are five seats R1, R2, R3,
R4 and R5 arranged in a row, where initially the seat Ri is allotted to the student Si, i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. But, on
the examination day, the five students are randomly allotted the five seats. (There are two questions
based on PARAGRAPH “A”, the question given below is one of them)
[JEE(Advanced) 2018, Paper-1,(3, –1)/60]

27. The probability that, on the examination day, the student S1 gets the previously allotted seat R1, and NONE
of the remaining students gets the seat previously allotted to him/her, is

3 1 7 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
40 8 40 5

28. For i = 1, 2, 3,4, let Ti denote the event that the students Si and Si+1 do NOT sit adjacent to each other on
the day of the examination. Then, the probability of the event T1  T2  T3  T4 is

1 1 7 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
15 10 60 5

29. There are three bags B1, B2 and B3. The bag B1 contains 5 red and 5 green balls. B2 contains 3 red and 5
green balls and B3 contains 5 red and 3 green balls. Bags B1, B2 and B3 have probabilities 3/10, 3/10 and 4/
10 respectively of being chosen. A bag is selected at random and a ball is chosen at random from the bag.
Then which of the following options is/are correct ?

3
(A) Probability that the chosen ball is green, given that the selected bag is B3 , equals
8

5
(B) Probability that the selected bag is B3, given that the chosen ball is green, equals
13

39
(C) Probability that the chosen ball is green equals
80

3
(D) Probability that the selected bag is B3, given that the chosen ball is green, equals
10

44
Probability

30. Let S be the sample space of all 3 × 3 matrices with entries from the set {0, 1}. Let the events
E1 = {A  S : det A = 0} and
E2 = {A  S : Sum of entries of A is 7}
If a matrix is chosen at random from S, then the conditional probability P(E1|E2) equals _____
[JEE(Advanced) 2019, Paper-1,(4, –1)/62]

31. Let |X| denote the number of elements in a set X. Let S = {1,2,3,4,5,6} be a sample space, where each
element is equally likely to occur. If A and B are independent events associated with S, then the number of
ordered pairs (A,B) such that 1  | B | | A | equals [JEE(Advanced) 2019, Paper-2 ,(4, –1)/62]

45
Probability

Answers
Exercise-1
PART - I
Section (A) :
A-1. (i) {HHH, HHT, HTH, THH, HTT, THT, TTH, TTT}
(ii) {B1 B2, B1 B3, B1 G 1, B1 G 2, B2 B3, B2 G 1,
B 2 G 2, B 3 G 1, B 3 G 2, G 1 G 2}
4 5
A-2. 43 to 34 A-3. A-4. A-5. (i) 3/56 (ii) 9/28
5 9
4 1
A-6. (i) (ii) A-7. a) No (b) No A-8. 5/9
15 10

2 4 5 1
A-9. B= ,C= A-10. A-11.
5 15 36 462
13
2197 C 4  44
A-12. (i) (ii) 52
20825 C4
Section (B) :

4  4 3 2  2 9 
B-1. B-2. (A)  ,  (B)  , 1 (C)  , 
1155 15 5  3   5 10 

B-3. (i) 0.72 (ii) 0.32 (iii) 0.28 B-4. 19/42 B-5. 1/2
Section (C) :
2 1 3
C-1. (i) (ii) C-2. C-3. (i) 1/10, (ii) 3/10, (iii) 2/3
3 2 4
52 16 12 9
C-4. C-5. , , C-6. 3/5 C-7. 13/24
77 37 37 37
27 8 1 12 1
C-8. (i) (ii) C-9. C-10. C-11.
56 29 17 47 4
C-12. 0.6976
Section (D) :
7 29
D-1. D-2. 1/2 D-3. 97/(25)4 D-4.
213 30
xi 0 1 2 3
D-5.  19 
3
19 2
19 216
pi   18  108 
 25  25 3 25 3 25 3

D-6. mean = 2.5, variance = 1.25

PART - II
Section (A) :
A-1. (D) A-2. (C) A-3. (C) A-4. (D) A-5. (A)
A-6. (D) A-7. (A) A-8. (B) A-9. (C)
Section (B) :
B-1. (B) B-2 (A) B-3. (B)

46
Probability

Section (C) :
C-1. (B) C-2. (A) C-3. (A) C-4. (C) C-5. (B)
C-6. (A) C-7. (C) C-8. (D) C-9. (A) C-10. (D)
Section (D) :
D-1. (C) D-2. (A) D-3. (D) D-4. (B) D-5. (C)
D-6. (B) D-7. (C)

Exercise-2
PART - I

1. (A) 2. (A) 3. (C) 4. (A) 5. (B)

6. (D) 7. (D) 8. (A) 9. (D) 10. (B)

11. (C) 12. (B) 13. (A) 14. (B) 15. (D)
16. (D) 17. (D) 18. (A) 19. (A) 20. (B)
21. (C) 22. (D)

PART - II
1. (AC) 2. (ACD) 3. (CD) 4. (ABC) 5. (AD)
6. (ABC) 7. (ABD) 8. (ABCD) 9. (AB)
10. (ABCD) 11. (AC) 12. (ABCD) 13. (ABCD) 14. (AC)
15. (AD) 16. (AC) 17. (ABCD)

Exercise-3
PART - I

1. 67 2. 12 3. 1 4. 2 5. 59
6. 16 7. 6 8. 20 9. 6 10. 1
11. 4 12. 1 13. 1 14. 34 15. 19
16. 7 17. 5 18. 5 19. 36 20. 7
21. 22 22. 11 23. 27

PART - II

1. (A)  (q), (B)  (r), (C)  (s), (D)  (r)

2. (A)  (s), (B)  (r), (C)  (q), (D)  (p)
3. A  R; B  Q; C  P; D S;
4. (D) 5. (B) 6. (A) 7. (C) 8. (B)
9. (D) 10. (D) 11. (B) 12. (A) 13. (A)
14. (C) 15. (A) 16. (B)

47
Probability

Exercise-4
PART - I

1. (4) 2. (4) 3. (2) 4. (1) 5. (3)

6. (2) 7. (4) 8. (2) 9. (3) 10. (1)
11. (2) 12. (4) 13. (3) 14. (3) 15. (4)
16. (4) 17. (4) 18. (2) 18. (2) 20. (1)
21. (1) 22. (4)

PART - II
1. (A) 2. (B) 3. (D) 4. (C) 5. (C)
6. (B) 7. (D) 8. (A D) 9. (BD) 10. (A)
11. (AB) 12. (A) 13. 6 14. (A) 15. (D)
16. (A) 17. (B) 18. (C) 19. 8 20. (AB)
21. (CD) 22. (C) 23. (B) 24. (C) 25. (AB)
26. (C) 27. (A) 28. (C) 29. (AC) 30. 0.05
31. 422

48
Probability

Exercise-5 (Diamond)
PART - I : OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. A fair coin is tossed (2m + 1) times, the probability of getting at least m consecutive heads is :

m3 (m  3)2m  1 m2

(A) m 1 (B) (C) (D) none of these
2 2 2m1
2m 1

2. Each square of a 3 × 3 board is coloured either red or blue at random (each having probability 1/2). The
probability that there is no 2 × 2 red square is :
417 117 201
(A) (B) (C) (D) None of these
512 512 512
3. On a particular day, six persons pick six different books, one each from different counters at a public library.
At the closing time, they arbitrarily put their books to the vacant counters. The probability that exactly two
books are at their previous places is :

(A) 1/3 (B) 1/15 (C) 3/4 (D) 3/16

4. In a betting game in an exhibition two dice P and Q are being used. Dice P has four red faces and two white
faces where as dice Q has two red and four white faces. A fair coin is tossed once. If it shows head the game
continues by throwing dice P. If it falls tail dice Q is thrown. If first n throws of the die all turns up red. then the
probability that P is being used is:

1 n 2n 2
(A) (B) n (C) n
(D)
2 2 1 2 1 3

5. Suppose that S be the set of all the ordered 4-tuples (x, y, z, w) of the +ve integers, which are the solutions
of x + y + z + w = 21. One such ordered tuple of solution is selected at random from S. The probability, that
x > y is :

1 35 7 4!
(A) (B) (C) (D) 21 !
2 76 38

6. 5 girls and 10 boys sit at random in a row having 15 chairs numbered as 1 to 15, then the probability
that end seats are occupied by the girls and between any two girls an odd number of boys sit is:
20  10!  5! 10  10!  5! 20  10 !  30 10  10!  5!
(A) (B) (C) (D)
15 ! 15 ! 15 ! 25 !

7. Let p be the probability that a man aged x years will die in a year time. The probability that out of 'n'
men A1, A2, A3,......, An each aged 'x' years. A 1 will die & will be the first to die is:

1  pn p p (1  p)n1 1  (1  p)n
(A) (B) (C) (D)
n n n n

49
Probability

8. Urn A contains 6 red & 4 black balls and urn B contains 4 red & 6 black balls. One ball is drawn at
random from urn A & placed in urn B. Then one ball is drawn at random from urn B & placed in urn A. If
one ball is now drawn at random from urn A, the probability that it is red is
19 32 41 9
(A) (B) (C) (D)
55 55 55 55

9. Probability of n heads in 2n tosses of a fair coin can be given by P then P is not equal to?
n
  nCr 
2
2
n n n n
 C 
 2r  1  nr
(A)   2r 
 (B)   
2r  (C)   r 
n  (D)
r 0
2
r 1 r 1 r 0  2   n n 
  Cr 
 
 r 0 

10. Integers a, b, c and d not necessarily distinct, are chosen independently and at random from the set
S = {0, 1, 2, 3, ...... 2006, 2007}. then probability that | ad – bc | is even
(A) 25/64 (B) 375/512 (C) 5/8 (D) 3/4

11. Suppose that there are 5 red points and 4 blue points on a circle. then probability that a convex polygon
whose vertices are among the 9 points has at least one blue vertex is ?
(A) 207/233 (B) 211/233 (C) 217/233 (D) 225/233

12. A hotel packed breakfast for each of the three guests. Each breakfast should have consisted of three types
of rolls, one each of nut, cheese and fruit rolls. The preparer wrapped each of the nine rolls and once
warpped, the rolls were indistinguishable from one another. She then randomly put three rolls in a bag for
each of the guests. The probability that each guset got one roll of each type is
(A) 1/18 (B) 1/35 (C) 3/35 (D) 9/70

13 In a game of chance each player throws two unbiased dice and scores the difference between the larger and
smaller number which arise . Two players compete and one or the other wins if and only if he scores atleast
4 more than his opponent . Then probability that neither player wins .
(A) 71/81 (B) 74/81 (C) 76/81 (D) none of these

14. 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. then probability that he will get atleast one book published
if he writes two.
(A) 309/576 (B) 407/576 (C) 425/576 (D) 231/576

15. If the papers of 4 students can be checked by any one of the 7 teachers. Then the probability that all 4 papers
are checked by exactly 2 teachers is :

2 4 6 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
49 49 49 7

50
Probability
16. If a and b are chosen randomly from the set consisting of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 with replacement. They the

2
 a x  bx  x
probability that lim
x 0 
 6 is :
 2 

(A) 1/3 (B) 1/9 (C) 1/6 (D)1/4

17. 3 cards are given, one of them is red on both sides, one is blue on both sides & one is blue on one side
and red on the other side. One of them is chosen randomly & put on the table. It shows red colour on
the upper side. Find the probability of the other side of the card being red.
1 1 2 3
(A) (B) (C) (D)
3 2 3 4

18. A cube with all six faces coloured is cut into 64 cubical blocks of the same size which are thoroughly
mixed. Find the probability that the 2 randomly chosen blocks have 2 coloured faces each.

17 19 1 23
(A) (B) (C) (D)
168 168 8 168

19. A and B are two independent events. The probability that both occur simultaneously is 1/6 and the probability
that neither occurs is 1/3. Find the absolute difference of probabilities of occurance of the events A and B
(A) 1/3 (B) 1/9 (C) 1/6 (D)1/4

20. Two cards are drawn at random from a pack of playing cards. Find the probability that one card is a heart and
the other is an ace.

1 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
52 26 17 34

PART - II : SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Eight players P1, P2, P3, ............P8 play a knock-out tournament. It is known that whenever the players Pi
and Pj play, the player Pi will win if i < j. Assuming that the players are paired at random in each round, what
is the probability that the player P4 reaches the final.

2. Four cards are drawn from a pack of 52 playing cards. Find the probability of drawing exactly one pair.

3. 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 & pn = (1  p) pn  1 + p (1  p) pn  2 , for all n  3.

4. A box contains N coins, m of which are fair and the rest are biased. The probability of getting a head when a
fair coin is tossed is 1/2, while it is 2/3 when a biased coin is tossed. A coin is drawn from the box at random
and is tossed twice. The first time it shows head and the second time it shows tail. What is the probability
that the coin drawn is fair?

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Probability

5. (a) A person takes three tests in succession. The probability of his passing the first test is p, that of his passing
each successive test is p or p/2 according as he passes or fails in the preceding one. He gets selected
provided he passes at least two tests. Determine the probability that the person is selected.
(b) In a combat, A targets B, and both B and C target A. The probabilities of A, B, C hitting their targets are
2/3 , 1/2 and 1/3 respectively. They shoot simultaneously and A is hit. Find the probability that B hits his
target whereas C does not.

6. If 'n' different things are distributed among x boys and y girls. Find the probability that the number of things
received by girls is even.

7. 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.

8. The probability that an archer hits the target when it is windy is 0.4; when it is not windy, her probability of
hitting the target is 0.7. On any shot, the probability of a gust of wind is 0.3. Find the probability that
(a) She hit the target on first shot
(b) Hits the target exactly once in two shots

9. Two cards are randomly drawn from a well shuffled pack of 52 playing cards, without replacement. Let x be
the first number and y be the second number.
Suppose that Ace is denoted by the number 1; Jack is denoted by the number 11 ; Queen is denoted by the
number 12 ; King is denoted by the number 13.
Find the probability that x and y satisfy log3(x + y) – log3x – log3y + 1 = 0.

10. (a) Two numbers x & y are chosen at random from the set {1,2,3,4,....3n}. Find the probability that
x²  y² is divisible by 3 .
(b) If two whole numbers x and y are randomly selected from the set of natural numbers, then find the probability
that x3 + y3 is divisible by 8.

11. 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
where p, q, r are positive integers, find the value of p2 + q2 + r2.
3r

12. A uniform unbised die is constructed in the shape of a regular tetrahedron with faces numbered 2, 2, 3 and 4
and the score is taken from the face on which the die lands. If two such dice are thrown together, find the
probability of scoring.
(i) exactly 6 on each of 3 successive throws. (ii) more than 4 on at least one of the three successive throws.

52
Probability

13 6 fair 6-sided dice are rolled. Then the probability that the sum of the values on the top faces of the dice is

divisible by 7 can be expressed as then find the sum of the digits of . (N)
7776

14 In a game of chance each player throws two unbiased dice and scores the difference between the larger and
smaller number which arise . Two players compete and one or the other wins if and only if he scores atleast
4 more than his opponent . Find the probability that neither player wins .

15 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.

16. 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.

17. A match between two players A and B is won by the player who first wins two games. A's chance of winning,
drawing or losing any particular games are 1/2, 1/6 or 1/3 respectively. If the probability of A's winning the
match can be expressed in the form p/q, find (p + q).

18. Five team of equal strength play against each other in a tournament and each match either ends in a win or
loss for a team. Find the probability that no team win all its games or loss all its game.

19. A quadratic equation is chosen from the set of all quadratic equations which are unchanged by squaring
their roots. Given that roots are real. Find the probability that the chosen equation has equal roots.

3 5
20. Suppose A & B shoot independently until each hits his target. They have probabilities , of hitting the
5 7
target at each shoot. Find the probability that B will require more shots than A.

21. 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.
If the answer given by the student was found correct, then the probability that he knew the answer is a/b
where a and b are relatively prime. then value of (a + b) is equal to?

22. A number is chosen randomly from one of the two sets,

A: {1801, 1802, .......... 1899, 1900}
B: {1901, 1902, .......... 1999, 2000}
If the number chossen represents a calender year, find the probability that it has 53 sundays.

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Probability
9 16
23. A bear hides itself either behind bush A with probability or behind bush B with probability . A hunter
25 25
have 10 bullets each of which can be fired either at bush A or B. Hunter hits each target independtly with an
accuracy of 1/4. How many bullets can be fired at bush A to hit the bear with max. probability.

24. Let the probability pn that a family has exactly n children be pn, where n  1 and p0 = 1 – p(1 + p + p2 + .....)
(0 < , p < 1). Suppose that sex distribution of n children have the same probability. Show that for k  1, the

2pk
probability that the family has exactly k boys is .
(2  p)k 1

25. Match : A box contains n coins. Let P(Ei) be the probability that exactly i out of n coins are biased. If P(Ei)
is directly proportional to i(i + 1) ; 1  i  n.

(3n  1)
(A) Proportionality constant k is equal to (p)
4n

3
(B) If P be the probability that a coin selected at (q)
n(n  1)(n  2)
random is biased then P is

3
(C) If a coin selected at random is found to be (r)
n2
biased then the probability that it is the only
biased coin in the box is

24
(D) P(En) is equal to (s)
n(n  1)(n  2)(3n  1)

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Probability

Answers
Exercise-5
PART - I
1. (B) 2. (A) 3. (D) 4. (C) 5. (B)
6. (A) 7. (D) 8. (B) 9. (B) 10. (C)
11. (D) 12. (D) 13 (B) 14. (B) 15. (C)
16. (B) 17. (C) 18. (D) 19. (C) 20. (B)

PART - II
9m
1. 4/35 2. 0.304 4.
m  8N
(x  y)n  (x – y)n
5. (a) p2 (2 – p) ; (b) 1/2 6.
2(x  y)n
7. Option B
11 (5n  3) 5
8. (a) 0.61; (b) 0.4758 9. 10. (a) (b)
663 (9n  3) 16
125 63
11. 283 12. (i) 3 ; (ii) 13 4
16 64
14 74/81 15 1/2, 1/2, 1/12 16. 55
17 1
17. 206 18. 19.
32 2
6 249
20. 21. 317 22.
31 1400
23. 4 25. A-q ; B–q, C–s, d–r

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