Permutation and Combination

1. From a group of 7 men and 6 women, five persons are to be selected to form a
committee so that at least 3 men are there on the committee. In how many ways can it
be done?

We may have (3 men and 2 women) or (4 men and 1 woman) or (5 men only).

Required number of ways = (7C3 x 6C2) + (7C4 x 6C1) + (7C5) = 756

2. In how many different ways can the letters of the word 'LEADING' be arranged in
such a way that the vowels always come together?

The word 'LEADING' has 7 different letters.

When the vowels EAI are always together, they can be supposed to form one letter.
Then, we have to arrange the letters LNDG (EAI).
Now, 5 (4 + 1 = 5) letters can be arranged in 5! = 120 ways.
The vowels (EAI) can be arranged among themselves in 3! = 6 ways.
Required number of ways = (120 x 6) = 720.

3. In how many different ways can the letters of the word 'CORPORATION' be arranged
so that the vowels always come together?

In the word 'CORPORATION', we treat the vowels OOAIO as one letter.

Thus, we have CRPRTN (OOAIO).
This has 7 (6 + 1) letters of which R occurs 2 times and the rest are different.
Number of ways arranging these letters = 7! / 2! = 2520.

Now, 5 vowels in which O occurs 3 times and the rest are different, can be arranged
in 5! / 3! = 20 ways.

Required number of ways = (2520 x 20) = 50400.

4. Out of 7 consonants and 4 vowels, how many words of 3 consonants and 2 vowels
can be formed?

7
C3 * 4C2 * 5! = 25200

5. In how many ways can the letters of the word 'LEADER' be arranged?

6! / 2! = 360.

6. A question paper consists of three sections 4, 5 and 6 questions respectively.

Attempting one question from each section is compulsory but a candidate need not
attempt all the questions. In how many ways can a candidate attempt the questions?
 At least 1 question from each section is compulsory, so from the 1st section the
candidate can attempt 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 questions. In each section each question can be
dealt with in 2 ways, i.e. either he attempts it or leaves it. So for 4 question there are
2(2)(2)(2)2(2)(2)(2) ways to attempt. As he has to attempt at least 1 question, the total
number of ways in which he can attempt questions from 1st section is 2 41

Similarly for the 2nd section there are 251 ways in which he can attempt and for the
3rd section there are 261 ways.

The ways in which the attempts one or more questions in any section is independent
of the number of ways in which he attempts one or more questions from the other
sections.

Thus, total number of ways in which he can attempt questions in that paper:

= (241)(251)(261) =153163 =29,295

7. In how many ways a President, VP and Waterboy can be selected from a group of 10
people.

10
P3

8. In a hockey championship, there are 153 matches played. Every two team played one
match with each other. The number of teams participating in the championship is:

Let there were x teams participating in the games, then total number of matches: nC2
=153

n! / 2! (n-2)! = 153

On solving, we get n=17 and n=18.

It cannot be negative so n=18 is the answer.

9. A box contains 10 balls out of which 3 are red and rest are blue. In how many ways
can a random sample of 6 balls be drawn from the bag so that at the most 2 red balls
are included in the sample and no sample has all the 6 balls of the same colour?

Six balls can be selected in the following ways:

One red ball and 5 blue ball

Or
Two red balls and 4 blue balls

Total number of ways: =(3C17C5)+(3C27C4) = 63+105 = 168

10. Find the number of words, with or without meaning, that can be formed with the
letters of the word CHAIR.

CHAIR contains 5 letters. Therefore, the number of words that can be formed with
these 5 letters = 5! = 5*4*3*2*1 = 120.

11. Out of eight crew members three particular members can sit only on the left side.
Another two particular members can sit only on the right side. Find the number of
ways in which the crew can be arranged so that four men can sit on each side.

Required number of ways, = 3C24!4!=1728

12. A man positioned at the origin of the coordinate system. the man can take steps of
unit measure in the direction North, East, West or South. Find the number of ways of
he can reach the point (5,6), covering the shortest possible distance.

In order to reach (5,6) covering the shortest distance at the same time the man has to
make 5 horizontal and 6 vertical steps. The number of ways in which these steps can
be taken is given by: 11! / (5! 6!) = 462

13. There are 6 equally spaced points A,B,C,D,EA,B,C,D,E and F marked on a circle
with radius R. How many convex pentagons of distinctly different areas can be drawn
using these points as vertices?

Since, all the points are equally spaced; hence the area of all the convex pentagons
will be same.

14. In an examination paper, there are two groups each containing 4 questions. A
candidate is required to attempt 5 questions but not more than 3 questions from any
group. In how many ways can 5 questions be selected?

5 questions can be selected in the following ways, 2 question from first group and 3
question from second group Or 3 question from first group and 2 question from
second group.
(4C2 * 4C3) + (3C4 *2C4), = 24 +24 = 48

15. After every get-together every person present shakes the hand of every other person.
If there were 105 handshakes in all, how many persons were present in the party?

Let total number of persons present in the party be x, Then, xC2 =

x(x1) / 2=105

x=15
16. How many ways can 10 letters be posted in 5 post boxes, if each of the post boxes can
take more than 10 letters?

Each of the 10 letters can be posted in any of the 5 boxes. So, the first letter has 5
options, so does the second letter and so on and so forth for all of the 10 letters. i.e.5
*5 *5 *. . . .*5 (up-to 10 times). =510

17. How many four letter distinct initials can be formed using the alphabets of English
language such that the last of the four words is always a consonant?

The last of the four letter words should be a consonant. Therefore, there are 21
options. The first three letters can be either consonants or vowels. So, each of them
have 26 options. Note that the question asks you to find out the number of distinct
initials and not initials where the letters are distinct. Hence, required answer
=26262621 = 263 *21.

18. How many diagonals can be drawn in a pentagon?

A pentagon has 5 sides. We obtain the diagonals by joining the vertices in pairs.
Total number of sides and diagonals: = 5C2 = 10

This includes its 5 sides also. Diagonals = 105=5

19. There are five women and six men in a group. From this group a committee of 4 is to
be chosen. How many different ways can a committee be formed that contain three
women and one man?

5
C36C1 = 60

20. Find the total number of distinct vehicle numbers that can be formed using
two letters followed by two numbers. Letters need to be distinct.

Out of 26 alphabets two distinct letters can be chosen in 26P2 ways.

Coming to numbers part, there are 10 ways (any number from 0 to 9 can be chosen) to
choose the first digit and similarly another 10 ways to choose the second digit.

Hence, there are totally 1010=100 ways.

Combined with letters there are 26P2100=65000 ways to choose vehicle numbers

21. In a railway compartment, there are 2 rows of seats facing each other with
accommodation for 5 in each, 4 wish to sit facing forward and 3 facing towards the
 rear while 3 others are indifferent. In how many ways can the 10 passengers be
seated?

The four person who wish to sit facing forward can be seated in: 5P4 ways and 3 who
wish to sit facing towards the rear can be seated in: 5P3 ways and the remaining 3 can
be seated in the remaining 3 seats in 3P3 ways.

Total number of ways =5P45P33P3 =43200

22. There are three prizes to be distributed among five students. If no students gets more
than one prize, then this can be done in:

3 prizes among 5 students can be distributed in 5C3 ways =10 ways.

23. A teacher of 6 students takes 2 of his students at a time to a zoo as often as he can,
without taking the same pair of children together more than once. How many times
does the teacher go to the zoo?

Two students can be selected from 6 in 6C2=15 ways. Therefore, the teacher goes to
the zoo 15 times.

24. A family consist of a grandfather, 5 sons and daughter and 8 grandchildren. They are
to be seated in a row for dinner. The grandchildren wish to occupy the 4 seats at each
end and the grandfather refuses to have a grandchild on either side of him. The
number of ways in which the family can be made to sit is:

Total no. of seats: =1 grandfather +5 sons and daughters +8 grandchildren =14

The grandchildren can occupy the 4 seats on either side of the table in 4! =24 ways.

The grandfather can occupy a seat in (51)=4 ways (4 gaps between 5 sons and
daughter). And, the remaining seats can be occupied in 5!=120 ways (5 seat for sons
and daughter).

Hence total number of required ways =8!480