UNIVERSITY OF ILESA, ILESA, OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
PRE-DEGREE TUTORIAL QUESTIONS
COURSE CODE: MAT 023 COURSE TITLE: COMBINATORICS & PROBABILITY
INSTRUCTION: Answer the questions by choosing the correct option from letters A to D.
1. 1. If 16Pr-1 : 15Pr-1 = 16 : 7, then find the value of r.
(A) 10 (B) 12 (C) 7 (D) 8
n n
2. If Pr = 3024 and Cr = 126 then find n and r.
(A) 9, 4 (B) 10, 3 (C) 12, 4 (D) 11, 4
3. In how many ways can we select 6 people out of 10, of which a particular person is not included?
(A) 10C6 (B) 9C5 (C) 9C6 (D) 10C5
4. In how many ways can the first, second and third positions be won by seven contestants in a
Mathematics contest?
(A) 56 (B) 120 (C) 210 (D) 360
5. The letters of the word MATHEMATICS can be arranged in how many ways?
11! 11! 11! 11!
(A) (B) (C) (D)
9!2!2! 9!2! 2!2!2! 2!2!
6. How many 5-letter code-words can be formed from the letters of the word ALGEBRA if the code-
words must begin with A and end with A?
(A) 20 (B) 120 (C) 60 (D) 40
7. Determine the number of different arrangements of the letters of the word: OGBOMOSO.
(A) 2400 (B) 1280 (C) 1680 (D) 1500
8. A committee consist of 6 men and 4 women. In how many ways can a sub-committee consisting of 4
men and 1 woman be chosen?
(A) 30 (B) 35 (C) 60 (D) 20
9. In how many ways can a delegation of 3 be chosen from among 5 men and 3 women, if at least one
man at least one woman must be included?
(A) 15 (B) 28 (C) 30 (D) 45
10. Seven committee members are to meet in a board room having a circular sitting arrangement. How
many possible ways can these member be seated?
(A) 5040 (B) 720 (C) 40320 (D) 2520
11. A coin is tossed 3 times. Obtain the probability of having at least 1 head.
(A) 1/3 (B) 1/8 (C) 7/8 (D) 3/8
12. A bag contains 3 red balls and 2 blue balls. What is the probability of drawing a red ball?
(A) 1/5 (B) 2/5 (C) 3/5 (D) 4/5
13. Which of the following could NOT represent the probability of an event occurring?
(A) 1/1056 (B) 59/61 (C) 57/41 (D) 6/257
14. Box A contains 7 electric bulbs of which 3 are defective while box B contains 5 bulbs of which 2 are
defective. If two bulbs are drawn at random, one from each box, find the probability that both bulbs
are non-defective. (A) 6/35 (B) 12/35 (C) 29/35 (D) 41/35
15. There are twice as many red pens as there are blue pens in a desk. If a pen is randomly selected, what
is the probability it is blue? (A) ¼ (B) 1/3 (C) 2/3 (D) ½
1
16. The probability that a patient will die while undergoing a delicate heart operation is 0.175. What is
the probability of the patient surviving from the operation?
(A) 0.0875 (B) 0.325 (C) 0.350 (D) 0.825
17. A fair coin is tossed 5 times. Find the probability of obtaining at least 4 heads.
(A) 5/16 (B) 1/16 (C) 13/16 (D) 3/16
18. A problem of Statistics was given to three students A, B and C whose chances of solving it are ½, ¾,
and ¼ respectively. Determine the probability that the problem will be solved.
(A) 3/32 (B) 23/32 (C) 15/32 (D) 29/32
19. Which of the following properties must be satisfied by a probability distribution?
(A) Positive (B) Probability must sum up to 1 (C) Negative (D) Non-positive
20. Two identical tetrahedral are tossed once. If each face of each tetrahedral is labelled in the manner
2, 3, 4, 5, what is the probability of obtaining a sum equal to 7?
(A) 1/16 (B) 1/8 (C) 3/16 (D) 1/4
21. A pair of fair dice is tossed. Find the probability that the sum is 9 or greater, given that 4 appears on
the first die. (A) 9/36 (B) 1/18 (C) 5/18 (D) 1/3
22. Find the probability that in a family of 4 children there will be at most 2 girls.
(A) 1/2 (B) 1/8 (C) 3/4 (D) 1/4
23. The probability that a man will live 20 more years is 1/3 and the probability that his wife will live
20 more years is 1/4. Calculate the probability that neither will be alive in 20 years’ time.
(A) 1/12 (B) 7/12 (C) 5/12 (D) 11/12
24. In a class of 30 pupils, 12 are girls. If a prefect is randomly selected, what is the probability that he
is a boy? (A) 1/18 (B) 2/5 (C) 3/5 (D) 1/12
25. A die is tossed once. Find the probability that the number which appeared is an even or an odd
number. (A) 1/2 (B) 1/3 (C) 1/6 (D) 1
26. The probability that Ade passes a Mathematics test is p, and that he passes a Physics test is q. Find
the probability that he passes Mathematics test and fails Physics test.
(A) q – pq (B) p – pq (C) p – q + 1 (D) q – q + 1
27. If today is Tuesday, what is the probability that the next day will be Wednesday?
(A) 0 (B) 1/7 (C) 1/6 (D) 1
28. A coin is tossed three times. Find the probability of getting exactly two heads.
(A) 0.250 (B) 0.752 (C) 0.375 (D) 0.575
29. A fair coin is tossed thrice, what is the probability of getting all 3 same outcomes?
(A) 1⁄4 (B) 3⁄4 (C) 1⁄6 (D) 1⁄2
30. What is the probability of drawing a King from a standard deck of 52 cards?
(A) 1/52 (B) 4/52 (C) 12/52 (D) 13/52
31. Let U = {x: x is an integer and 1 x 20} and E1 = {x: x is a multiple of 3} while
E2 = {x: x is a multiple of 4}. If an integer is picked at random from U, find the
probability that it is not in E2.
(A) ¾ (B) 3/10 (C) ¼ (D) 1/20
32. The probability that at least one of the events Q and R occur is 0.6. If Q and R have probability of
occurring together as 0.2, then P(Q) + P(R) is
(A) 1.2 (B) 0.8 (C) 0.4 (D) 0.12
2
33. Let X and Y be two events such that P(X) = 1/5, P(Y) = 1/4 and P(X ∪ Y) = 1/3, Compute P(X|Y).
(A) 4/3 (B) 7/15 (C) 7/12 (D) 4/5
34. Suppose box A contains 4 green and 5 black coins and box B contains 6 green and 3 black coins. A
coin is chosen at random from the box A and placed in box B. Finally, a coin is chosen at random
from among those now in box B. What is the probability a blue coin was transferred from box A to
box B given that the coin chosen from box B is green?
(A) 14⁄29 (B) 15⁄29 (C) 7⁄10 (D) 1⁄2
35. X and Y are two events. The probability of X and Y is 0.7 and the probability of X is 0.4. If X and Y
are independent, find the probability of Y.
(A) 0.30 (B) 0.50 (C) 0.57 (D) 1.80
2 5 1 0
36. If A and I T
, evaluate A I .
1 3 0 1
2 5 3 5 2 1 3 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
1 3 1 2 5 3 5 4
2 5 1 0
, evaluate A I .
T
37. If A and I
1 3 0 1
2 5 3 5 2 1 3 1
(A) (B) (C)
(D)
1 3 1 2 5 3 5 4
x4 0
38. Find the value of x for which the determinant of the matrix is zero.
1 x 1
(A) 0, -5 (B) -4, 2 (C) -4, 1 (D) 4, -1
39. .
(A) x = 2, y = 10 (B) x = 3, y = 2 (C) x = 10, y = 2 (D) x = 2, y = 5
6 y 2 3 2 5
40. Two matrices are defined as: A 4 2 6 and B 2 1 2 x , If AT = 2B, evaluate 2x+y.
10 8 2 1 3 1
(A) 12 (B) 10 (C) 8 (D) 6
