DEPARTMENT OF CAREER

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

SUBJECT: QUANTATIVE
APTITUDE

PROBABILITY DISCOVER . LEARN . EMPOWER

 PROBABILITY
Course Outcome
CO Title Level
Number
CO1 Students will be able to apply the basic rule of probability Understand
in complex questions.

CO2 Probability will help the student in solving different types Remember
of questions in less time.

CO3 Probability will help the student in improving the Remember

understanding of aptitude.

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INTRODUCTION
Generally , the word probability is used
in our day to day conversation by coming
across following statements:
 Probably it will rain today.
 He may possibly join politics.
 Indian cricket has good chances of
winning World Cup.
In these all statements, the word
probably, possibly, chances used convey
the sense that there is uncertainty about
what has happened or what is going to
happen.
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Laws of Probability:
Generally, probability is a number between 0 and
1.
• 0 means impossible event
• 1means certain event
• ½ means a 50-50 chance of an event.

P(S) = 1

P(ϕ) = 0 (∵ Probability of occurrence of an

0 ≤ P (E) ≤ 1

impossible event = 0)
 EXPERIMENT
Anything which can produce well-defined outcomes.
There are two types of experiments which are:
1) Deterministic experiment: experiments which when repeated under identical conditions
produce the same results or outcomes.
For Ex:- When experiments in Science & Engineering we obtain the same results every time.
2) Random Experiment: experiments which when repeated under identical conditions do not
produce the same outcome every time.
For example :-
1. Tossing of a fair coin: either Head (H) or Tail (T)
2. Throwing an unbiased die: S = {1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6}
3. Drawing a card from a pack of shuffled cards
52 cards into four categories as below
Spades(♠),Clubs(♣), Hearts (♥),Diamonds (♦)
 EVENT
Any subset of a Sample Space is an event.
For ex.- we are calculating the probability of dice , an event is one roll of a dice.
Outcome: An Outcome is one possible result of an event. For ex. – Rolling a five is
one possible outcome of rolling one dice.
• A Success is an outcome that we want to measure.
• A Failure is an outcome that we don’t want to measure.
• Sample Space: The collection of all possible outcomes is known as Sample Space.
We can describe the probability of an event with the following terms:

 Certain (the event is definitely going to happen)

 Likely (the event will probably happen, but not definitely)
 Unlikely (the event will probably not happen, but it might)
 Impossible (the event is definitely not going to happen)
 Types of an event:
Equally Likely Events
There is no preference for a particular event over the other.
Head (H) or Tail is equally likely to occur.
Mutually Exclusive Events
If the occurrence of one of the events excludes the occurrence of the
other
Head and Tail cannot come simultaneously.
Independent Events
If the occurrence or non-occurrence of one event does not influence the
occurrence or non-occurrence of the other
Exhaustive Events
Total number of all possible outcomes of an experiment
two coins are tossed=4 possible outcomes.
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Now consider the random experiment in which two six faced dice are
rolled together. If (i, j) denotes the outcome of getting number i on first
die & number j on second die then possible outcomes are :
(1,1), (1,2), (1,3), (1,4), (1,5), (1,6)
(2,1), (2,2), (2,3), (2,4), (2,5), (2,6)
(3,1), (3,2), (3,3), (3,4), (3,5), (3,6)
(4,1), (4,2), (4,3), (4,4), (4,5), (4,6)
(5,1), (5,2), (5,3), (5,4), (5,5), (5,6)
(6,1), (6,2), (6,3), (6,4), (6,5), (6,6)
 Clearly, these outcomes are elementary events associated with the
random experiment of throwing two six faced dice together. The total
number of these elementary events is 36.
 Overview of cards
A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K
There are total 52 cards of different suits as below

 Suits: 4 , Face cards:12 (J, Q and K), Honor :16 (A, J, Q

and K)
Color Name Count Total

Hearts 13
Red 26
Diamond 13

Spade 13
Black 26
Club 13
Let's roll a die once.
This is the sample space- all the possible outcomes .
S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
Q. What is the probability you will roll an even number?
Sol. There are 3 ways to get an even number, rolling a 2, 4 or 6
P( even number)=3/6=1/2
There are 6 different numbers on the die.

Addition Theorem
Let A and B be two events associated with a random experiment. Then
P(A U B) = P(A) + P(B) – P(A ∩ B)
If A and B are mutually exclusive events then
P(A U B) = P(A) + P(B) because for mutually exclusive events,
P(A ∩ B) = 0
If A and B are two independents events, P(A ∩ B) = P(A).P(B)
The word and in probability means the intersection of two events.
The word or in probability means the union of two events.

Ques. What is the probability that you roll an even number and a number greater
than 3?
E = rolling an even number
F = rolling a number greater than 3
How can E occur? {2, 4, 6}
How can F occur? {4, 5, 6}
E ∩ F= {2,4,6} ∩ {4,5,6} = {4,6}
P( E ∩ F)= 2/6 =1/3
Ques. What is the probability that you roll an even number or a number greater
than 3?
P (E ∪ F)= 4 /6=2/3
(E ∪ F)= {2,4,6} ∪ {4,5,6}= {2,4,5,6}
 Independent Events
Two events are independent if The outcome of event A, has no effect on
outcome of event B.

Ex: "It rained on Tuesday" and "My chair broke at work“ are not at all
related to each other.
When calculating the probabilities for independent events you multiply the
probabilities.
LET’S TAKE AN EXAMPLE:
Let Event A: Today it will rain in Delhi.
Event B: Today I will reach office late.
Event C: Possibility of both events A&B happening together.
Given: P(A)=0.1, P(B)=0.02
Hence, P(C)=P(A)*P(B) = 0.1*0.02 =0.002
 Odds on an event
Let E be an event associated with a random experiment.
Let x outcomes are favorable to E and y outcomes are not
favorable to E, then
Odds in favor of E are x:y, i.e. and
Odds against E are y:x, i.e.
P(E) = P( ) =
𝐸
 Conditional Probability
The conditional probability of an event A (given B) is the
probability that an event A will occur given that another event,
B, has occurred.
 Complementary Event
One event is the complement of another event if the two events do
not contain any of the same outcomes, and together they cover the
entire sample space.
If n fair coins are tossed, total number
of outcomes in the sample space = 2^n
The probability of getting exactly r-number of
heads when n coins are tossed =
Q. Find the probability that a leap year selected at a random
will contain 53 Sundays.
Sol:- In a Leap year here are 366 days. We have, 366 days= 52 weeks and 2 days
Thus, a leap year has always 52 Sundays.
The remaining two days can be :
(i) Sunday & Monday
(ii) Monday & Tuesday
(iii) Tuesday & Wednesday
(iv) Wednesday & Thursday
(v) Thursday & Friday
(vi) Friday & Saturday
(vii) Saturday & Sunday
Clearly, there are 7 elementary events associated with this random experiment. Let A
be the event that a leap year has 53 Sundays.
Clearly the event A will happen if the last two days of the leap year are either Sunday
& Monday or Saturday & Sunday.
Favorable number of elementary events = 2
Hence , Required probability = 2/7.
 PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1. In a throw of coin what is the probability of getting tails.
A. 1 B. 2 C. ½ D. 0
Answer: C

2. Two unbiased coins are tossed. What is probability of getting at most one tail ?
A. ½ B. 1/3 C. 3/2 D.3/4
Answer: D

3. Three unbiased coins are tossed, what is the probability of getting at least 2 tails ?
A. 1/3 B. 1/6 C. ½ D. 1/8
Answer: C
4. What is the probability of getting a sum 9 from two throws of dice.
A. 1/3 B.1/9 C.1/12 D. 2/9
Answer: B

5. Two dice are thrown simultaneously. What is the probability of getting two
numbers whose product is even ?
A.3/4 B. ¼ C. 7/4 D. ½
Answer: A

6. In a box, there are 8 red, 7 blue and 6 green balls. One ball is picked up
randomly. What is the probability that it is neither blue nor green?
A. 2/3 B. 8/21 C. 3/7 D. 9/22
Answer: B
7. A box contains 20 electric bulbs, out of which 4 are defective. Two bulbs are
chosen at random from this box. The probability that at least one of these is
defective is
A.7/19 B.6/19 C.5/19 D. 4/19
Answer: A

8. A bag contains 6 white and 4 black balls .2 balls are drawn at random. Find the
probability that they are of same color.
A. ½ B.7/15 C.8/15 D. 1/9
Answer: B

9. In a lottery, there are 10 prizes and 25 blanks. A lottery is drawn at random. What
is the probability of getting a prize?
A.2/7 B.5/7 C.1/5 D.1/2
Answer: A
10. Two cards are drawn at random from a pack of 52 cards. what is the probability
that either both are black or both are queen?
A. 52/221 B.55/190 C.55/221 D.19/221
Answer: C

11. Tickets numbered 1 to 20 are mixed up and then a ticket is drawn at random. What
is the probability that the ticket drawn has a number which is a multiple of 3 or 5?
A.1/2 B.3/5 C.9/20 D.8/15
Answer: C
12. Two dice are tossed. The probability that the total score is a prime number is:
A.5/12 B.1/6 C.1/2 D.7/9
Answer: A

13. In a class, 30% of the students offered English, 20% offered Hindi and 10% offered
both. If a student is selected at random, what is the probability that he. has offered
English or Hindi ?
A.1/2 B.3/4 C.4/5 D.2/5
Answer: D
14. If two letters are taken at random from the word HOME, what is the probability
that none of the letters would be vowels?
A. 1/6 B.1/2 C.1/3 D.1/4
Answer: A

15. One card is drawn from a deck of 52 cards. Each card is equally likely to be
drawn. Find the probability that card drawn is either black or queen.
A. 7/13 B. 7/16 C. 6/19 D. 4/21
Answer: A

16. An unbiased coin is tossed twice. Find the probability of getting 1,2,3 or 4 in the
first toss and 4,5 or 6 in second attempt ?
A.1/4 B.1/3 C.1/5 D.1/6
Answer: B
17. A family has two children. find the probability that both the children are girls
given that at least one of them is a girl?
A.1/4 B.2/3 C.1/3 D.1/4
Answer: C

18. Ten cards numbered 1 to 10 are placed in a box, mixed up thoroughly and then
one card is drawn randomly. If it is known that the number on the drawn card is more
than 3, what is the probability that it is an even number?
A.2/7 B.6/7 C.7/2 D.4/7
Answer: D

19. If P (A) = 0.18, P (B) = 0.5 and P (B|A) = 0.2, find P(A n B)?
A. 0.32 B.0.36 C.0.16 D.0.64
Answer: B
20. If P(A) = 5/13, P(B) = 7/13, and P(A ∩ B) = 8/13, Find
P(A ∪ B)?
A.4/13 B.5/13 C.6/13 D. None
Answer: A

21. An urn contains 10 black and 5 white balls. Two balls are drawn from the urn
one after the other without replacement. What is the probability that both drawn balls
are black?
A.1/7 B. 2/7 C. 7/3 D.3/7
Answer: D
 Assessment Pattern
Assessment Parameter Score

Hourly Test – 1 10

Hourly Test – 2 10

Online Quiz 6

Surprise Test 4

Assignment 6

Attendance & Engagement Score on BB 4

Internal Assessment Weightage 40

End Semester Exam 60

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 APPLICATIONS

• Probability and the ability to understand and estimate the likelihood of any different combination
of outcomes versus one another are very important in day to day life.
• Probability helps in increasing thinking ability.
• Probability rule helps in solving question like:
Find the probability of obtaining an even prime number on each die, when a pair of dice is rolled?
An urn contains 10 black and 5 white balls. Two balls are drawn from the urn one after the
other without replacement. What is the probability that both drawn balls are black?

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 REFERENCES
Reference Books:
1. How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT By Arun Sharma
2. Quantitative Aptitude for Compétitive Examinations by R. S. Aggarwal

Reference websites:
1. http://www.allindiaexams.in/aptitude-questions-and-answers
2. https://www.fresherslive.com/online-test/
3. https://affairscloud.com/aptitude-questions/

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THANK YOU

For queries
Email: [email protected]