 TOPIC:

 Permutation
 and

 Combination



 Permutation: Permutation
means arrangement of
things. The word
arrangement is used, if the
order of things is
considered.



 Combination: Combination
means selection of things.
The word selection is used,
when the order of things
has no importance.

Example:     Suppose we have to form a
number consisting of three digits using the
digits 1,2,3,4. To form this number the digits
have to be arranged. Different numbers will
get formed depending upon the order in
which we arrange the digits.
This is an example of Permutation.


 Now suppose that we have to make a team of
11 players out of 20 players.


 This is an example of combination, because

the order of players in the team will not
result in a change in the team. No matter in
which order we list out the players the team
will remain the same! For a different team to
be formed at least one player will have to be
changed.

Two Fundamental Principles of
Counting
 Addition rule : If an experiment can be
performed in ‘n’ ways, & another experiment
can be performed in ‘m’ ways then either of
the two experiments can be performed in
(m+n) ways. This rule can be extended to
any finite number of experiments.

 Example:       Suppose there are 3 doors in a
room, 2 on one side and 1 on other side. A
man want to go out from the room.
Obviously he has ‘3’ options for it. He can
come out by door ‘A’ or door ‘B’ or door ’C’.

 Multiplication Rule : If a work can be done
in m ways, another work can be done in ‘n’
ways, then both of the operations can be
performed in m x n ways. It can be extended
to any finite number of operations.



 Example.:      Suppose a man wants to cross-
out a room, which has 2 doors on one side
and 1 door on other site. He has  2 x 1  = 2
ways for it.



 Factorial n : The product of first ‘n’ natural

numbers is denoted by n!.
    n!   = n(n-1) (n-2) ………………..3.2.1.

   Ex.       5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 =120

  Note       0!     =  1



  Permutation
 Number of permutations of ‘n’ different
things taken ‘r’ at a time is given by:-
 nPr       =            n!/(n-r)!

 Note : Factorial of negative-number is not

defined. The expression  –3! has no
meaning.

  Examples
 Q. How many different signals can be made
by 5 flags from 8-flags of different colours?

  Ans.   
 Number of ways taking 5 flags out of 8-flags 
= 8 P5
 =   8!/(8-5)!       
 =  8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 = 6720

 Q. How many words can be made by using the
letters of the word “SIMPLETON” taken all at
a time?

  Ans.   There are ‘9’ different letters of the
word “SIMPLETON”
 Number of Permutations taking all the
letters at a time = 9P9
 =  9!    = 362880.

  Number of permutations of n-thing, taken all
at a time, in which ‘P’ are of one type, ‘g’
of them are of second-type, ‘r’ of them are
of third-type, and rest are all different is
given by :-
   n!/p!xq!
xr!                                                               
                                

  Example: In how many ways can the letters
of the word “Pre-University” be arranged?

 Answer:
 13!/2! X 2! X 2!

 Number of permutations of n-things, taken
‘r’ at a time when each thing can be
repeated r-times is given by = nr.

 Example:      A child has 3 pocket and 4
coins. In how many ways can he put the
coins in his pocket.

 Answer
 First coin can be put in 3 ways, similarly
second, third and forth coins also can be
put in 3 ways.
 So total number of ways = 3 x 3 x 3 x 3   =
34   = 81

  Combination
 Number of Combination of ‘n’ different
things, taken ‘r’ at a time is given by:-
 nCr=  n! / r ! x (n-r)!                                

 Note: nCr  =  nCn-r


  Question 1: A college has 10 basketball
players. A 5-member team and a captain
will be selected out of these 10 players.
How many different selections can be
made?
 A. 1260
 B. 210

 C. 10 C6 * 6!

 D. 10 C5 *6

  Correct Answer - 1260. Choice (a)
 Explanation
A team of 6 members has to be selected
from the 10 players. This can be done in
10C6 or 210 ways.
Now, the captain can be selected from
these 6 players in 6 ways.
Therefore, total ways the selection can be
made is 210*6 = 1260.

  Question 2:  How many words of 4
consonants and 3 vowels can be made
from 12 consonants and 4 vowels, if all the
letters are different?
 a.16 C7 * 7!

b. 12 C4 * 4C3 * 7!
c. 12 C3 * 4C4
d. 12 C4 * 4C3

  Correct Answer - (b)
 Solution:
4 consonants out of 12 can be selected in
12 C4 ways.
3 vowels out of 4 can be selected in 4C3
ways.
Therefore, total number of groups each
containing 4 consonants and 3 vowels
 = 12 C4 * 4C3

Each group contains 7 letters, which can

be arranged in 7! ways.
Therefore required number of words =
 12 C4 * 4C3 * 7!

  Question 3:  If the letters of the word
CHASM are rearranged to form 5 letter
words such that none of the word repeat
and the results arranged in ascending
order as in a dictionary what is the rank of
the word CHASM?
 A. 24
 B. 31
 C. 32
 D. 30

  Correct Answer - (c)
 Solution:
The 5 letter word can be rearranged in 5!
Ways = 120 without any of the letters
repeating.
The first 24 of these words will start with A.
Then the 25th word will start will CA _ _ _.
The remaining 3 letters can be rearranged
in 3! Ways = 6. i.e. 6 words exist that start
with CA.
The next word starts with CH and then A,
i.e., CHA _ _. The first of the words will be
CHAMS. The next word will be CHASM.
Therefore, the rank of CHASM will be 24 +
6 + 2 = 32.

  Question 4:  How many four letter distinct
words can be formed using the alphabets
of English language such that the last of
the four letter word is always a consonant?
 A. (263)*(21)
 B. 26*25*24*21
 C. 25*24*23*21
 D. None of these.

  Correct Answer - (a)
 Solution:
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.
Hence answer = 26*26*26*21 = 263 * 21

  Question 5:  When four fair dice are rolled
simultaneously, in how many outcomes
will at least one of the dice show 3?
 155
 620
 671
 625

  Correct Answer - (c)
 Solution:
When 4 dice are rolled simultaneously,
there will be a total of 64 = 1296
outcomes.
The number of outcomes in which none of
the 4 dice show 3 will be 54 = 625
outcomes.
Therefore, the number of outcomes in
which at least one die will show 3 = 1296 –
625 = 671

  Question 6:  A team of 8 students goes on
an excursion, in two cars, of which one can
seat 5 and the other only 4. In how many
ways can they travel?
 A. 9
 B. 26
 C. 126
 D. 3920

 Correct Answer - (c)
 Solution:
There are 8 students and the maximum
capacity of the cars together is 9.
We may divide the 8 students as follows
Case I: 5 students in the first car and 3 in the
second
Or Case II: 4 students in the first car and 4 in
the second
Hence, in Case I: 8 students are divided into
groups of 5 and 3 in 8C3 ways.
Similarly, in Case II: 8 students are divided
into two groups of 4 and 4 in 8C4 ways.
Therefore, the total number of ways in which 8
students can travel is 8C3 + 8C4 = 56 + 70 =
126.

 Question 7:  There are 12 yes or no
questions. How many ways can these be
answered?
a. 1024
b. 2048
c. 4096
d 144

  Correct Answer - (c)
 Solution:
Each of the questions can be answered in
2 ways (yes or no)
Therefore, no. of ways of answering 12
questions = 212 = 4096 ways.

  Question 8:  How many words can be
formed by re-arranging the letters of the
word ASCENT such that A and T occupy the
first and last position respectively?
 A. 5!
 B. 4!
 C. 6! - 2!
 D. 6! / 2!

  Correct Answer - (b)
 Solution:
As A and T should occupy the first and last
position, the first and last position can be
filled in only one way. The remaining 4
positions can be filled in 4! ways by the
remaining letters (S,C,E,N). hence by
rearranging the letters of the word ASCENT
we can form 1x4! = 4! words.

  Question 9:  Four dice are rolled
simultaneously. What is the number of
possible outcomes in which at least one of
the die shows 6?
 a. 6! / 4!
 b. 625
 c. 671
 d. 1296

  Correct Answer - (c)
 Solution:
When 4 dice are rolled simultaneously,
there are 64 = 1296 outcomes. The
converse of what is asked in the question
is that none of the dice show '6'. That is all
four dice show any of the other 5 numbers.
That is possible in 54 = 625 outcomes.

Therefore, in 1296 - 625 = 671 outcomes

at least one of the dice will show 6.

  Question 10:  In how many ways can the
letters of the word MANAGEMENT be
rearranged so that the two As do not
appear together?
 A. 10! - 2!
 B. 9! - 2!
 C. 10! - 9!
 D. None of these

 Correct Answer - (4)
 Solution:
The word MANAGEMENT is a 10 letter
word.
Normally, any 10 letter word can be
rearranged in 10! ways.
However, as there are certain letters of the
word repeating, we need to account for
those. In this case, the letters A, M, E and
N repeat twice each.
Therefore, the number of ways in which
the letters of the word MANAGEMENT can
be rearranged reduces to
 The problem requires us to find out the
number of outcomes in which the two As do
not appear together.
The number of outcomes in which the two As
appear together can be found out by
considering the two As as one single letter.
Therefore, there will now be only 9 letters of
which three of them E, N and M repeat twice.
So these 9 letters with 3 of them repeating
twice can be rearranged in
ways.
 Therefore, the required answer in which the
two As do not appear next to each other =
Total number of outcomes - the number of
outcomes in which the 2 As appear
together
=> ways.

  Question 11:  There are 5 Rock songs, 6
Carnatic songs and 3 Indi pop songs. How
many different albums can be formed
using the above repertoire if the albums
should contain at least 1 Rock song and 1
Carnatic song?
 A. 15624
 B. 16384
 C. 6144
 D. 240

  Correct Answer - (a)
 Solution:
There are 2n ways of choosing ‘n’ objects. For e.g. if n
= 3, then the three objects can be chosen in the
following 23 ways - 3C0 ways of choosing none of the
three, 3C1 ways of choosing one out of the three, 3C2
ways of choosing two out of the three and 3C3 ways of
choosing all three.
In the given problem, there are 5 Rock songs. We can
choose them in 25 ways. However, as the problem
states that the case where you do not choose a Rock
song does not exist (at least one rock song has to be
selected), it can be done in 25 - 1 = 32 - 1 = 31 ways.
Similarly, the 6 Carnatic songs, choosing at least one,
can be selected in 26 - 1 = 64 - 1 = 63 ways.
And the 3 Indi pop can be selected in 23 = 8 ways. Here
the option of not selecting even one Indi Pop is allowed.
Therefore, the total number of combinations = 31 * 63
* 8 = 15624

  Question 12:  How many number of times
will the digit '7' be written when listing the
integers from 1 to 1000?
 (1) 271
(2) 300
(3) 252
(4) 304

 Correct Answer - (2)
 Solution:
7 does not occur in 1000. So we have to count
the number of times it appears between 1 and
999. Any number between 1 and 999 can be
expressed in the form of xyz where 0 < x, y, z
< 9.
1. The numbers in which 7 occurs only once.
e.g 7, 17, 78, 217, 743 etc
This means that 7 is one of the digits and the
remaining two digits will be any of the other 9
digits (i.e 0 to 9 with the exception of 7)
You have 1*9*9 = 81 such numbers. However,
7 could appear as the first or the second or
the third digit. Therefore, there will be 3*81 =
243 numbers (1-digit, 2-digits and 3- digits) in
which 7 will appear only once.
In each of these numbers, 7 is written once.
Therefore, 243 times.

 2. The numbers in which 7 will appear twice. e.g
772 or 377 or 747 or 77
In these numbers, one of the digits is not 7
and it can be any of the 9 digits ( 0 to 9 with
the exception of 7).
There will be 9 such numbers. However, this
digit which is not 7 can appear in the first or
second or the third place. So there are 3 * 9 =
27 such numbers.
In each of these 27 numbers, the digit 7 is
written twice. Therefore, 7 is written 54 times.
3. The number in which 7 appears thrice - 777
- 1 number. 7 is written thrice in it.
Therefore, the total number of times the digit
7 is written between 1 and 999 is 243 + 54 +
3 = 300