Question 1
How many possible ways are there to form five-
letter words using only the letters A–H?
How many such words consist of five distinct
letters?
Question 2
How many different number plates for cars can be
made if each number plate contains two letters
(A–Z) followed by five digits (0–9)?
Question 3
We want to design a flag that consists of three
horizontal stripes; the colour of the middle stripe
should be different from the other two stripes.
How many possibilities are there, if the colours
red, green, blue, yellow, black and white can be
used?
Question 4
How many diagonals does a regular dodecagon (a
twelve-sided polygon) have?
Question 5
How many three-digit numbers abc have the
property that a ≤ b ≤ c?
Question 6
How many different four-digit numbers are there
such that the product of the four digits is 420?
Question 7
The dean of science wants to select a committee
consisting of mathematicians and physicists to
discuss a new curriculum. There are 15
mathematicians and 20 physicists at the faculty;
how many possible committees of 8 members are
there, if there must be more mathematicians than
physicists (but at least one physicist) on the
committee?
Question 8
A palindrome is a word that can be read the same
way in either direction (such as RACE- CAR).
How many 9-letter palindromes (not necessarily
meaningful) can be formed using the letters A–Z?
Question 9
The four women Anne, Betsie, Charlotte and
Dolores and the six men Eric, Frank, George,
Harry, Ian and James are friends. Each of the
women wants to marry one of the six men. In
how many ways can this be done?
Question 10
How many five-element subsets of
{1, 2, 3, . . . , 10} contain at least one odd
element?
Question 11
Determine the coefficient of x3y4z in the expansion
of
(a) (x + y2 + z)6
(b) (2x − y − 3z)8
Question 12
In how many possible orders can the letters of
the word MATHEMATICS be arranged?
Question 13
At a dance, there are 20 girls and 20 boys.
How many ways are there to form 20 pairs?
How many, if boys may dance with boys and
girls with girls?
Question 14
A man has a certain number of friends; he wants
to invite three of them for dinner every day of the
year. How many friends must he have at least if he
does not want to invite the same three friends
twice?
Question 15
A single piece is placed on the lower-left corner
square of an 8 × 8-chessboard. The piece may
only move horizontally or vertically, one square at
a time. How many possible ways are there to
move the piece to the opposite corner in 14 moves
(the smallest possible number of moves)?
Question 16
How many 3-element subsets of {1, 2, 3, . . . ,
100} contain at least one element that is divisible
by 2 and at least one element that is divisible by
5?
Question 17
According to a recent survey, 60% of Stellenbosch
students play rugby, 50% play cricket, and 70%
play tennis. Furthermore, it was found that 30%
play both rugby and cricket, 35% play rugby and
tennis, and 30% play cricket and tennis. Someone
claims that 20% play all three sports. Show that
this cannot be true.
Question 18
How many numbers between 1 and 1000000 are
neither a square nor a cube of an integer?
Question 19
Bridge is played with a standard deck of 52 cards,
each player receives 13 cards. How many possible
hands can a player get in a game of bridge? In the
HCP (high card points) system, four points are
assigned to an ace, three points to a king, two to a
queen and one to a jack. How many possible
hands result in a total of
(a) exactly three points? (b) at least three points?
Question 20
How many integer solutions does the equation
x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 = 15 have, if we require that
x1 ≥ 2, x2 ≥ 3, x3 ≥ 10 and x4 ≥ −3?
Question 21
Count the number of non-negative integer
solutions to
3x1 + 3x2 + 3x3 + 7x4 = 22.
Question 22
You are going to an amusement park. There are four
attractions, (haunted house, roller coaster, a carousel,
water ride). You buy 25 tokens. Each attraction cost 3
tokens each ride, except the roller coaster that costs 5.
Obviously, you want to ride each ride at least once, but
the order of the rides does not matter. In how many
ways can you spend your tokens? You may have some
remaining tokens in the end of the day. In how many
ways can you spend your tokens? You may have some
remaining tokens in the end of the day.
Question 23
How many words can be made by rearranging
abbccdd, such that no ’a’ appears somewhere to
the right of some ’c’?
Question 24
How many words can you create of length 6, from
the letters a, b, c and d if
• you must include each letter at least once, and
• a must appear exactly once.
Question 25
There are 8 people available. Count the number of ways
a. to choose 6 of them and arrange them in a line.
b. to choose 6 of them and place them into lines named A and B, with 3 in
each.
c. to choose 6 of them and place them into two equal-sized unlabeled lines.
d. to choose 6 of them to make a group.
e. to choose 6 of them and place them into groups named A and B, with 3 in
each.
f. to choose 6 of them and make two equal-sized unlabeled groups.
g. to choose 6 of them and make three equal-sized unlabeled groups.
