Anees Hussain Salman Ghaffar

Permutations & Combinations

Permutations & Combinations relate to the counting principle. The concepts allow you to
figure out the number of ways certain events can take place. For example, if you have 5
shirts and 3 pants, then the number of different outfits that you can make choosing one
shirt and one pant = 5 x 3 = 15

If task A can be performed in m ways, and task B can be performed in n

ways, then task A followed by task B can be performed in (m x n) ways.

Permutations = Selection & Arrangement. A permutation is an arrangement of objects

in a definite order.

Combinations = Selection Only. A combination is any selection of objects where the

order of the objects is of no concern. For example, the different (ordered) permutations
ABC and CAB are considered as the same combination when we disregard the order of
the letters and realize that both contain the same three letters.

Factorials:

Concept 1: n! = n “factorial” = n x (n – 1) x (n – 2) x …… x 1
Concept 2: 1! = 1
Concept 3: 0! = 1

Permutations:

Concept 1:
The number of ways in which n different objects can be arranged in a straight line  n!

Example: The number of ways in which the letters A, B, C, D, E can be arranged in a

straight line = 5! = 120

Concept 2:
The number of ways in which n objects can be arranged in a straight line, given that p
n!
object are similar to each other, and q objects are similar to each other  p!  q!

Example: The number of ways the letters A,A,B,B,B,C can be arranged in a straight line
6! 6  5  4  3  2 1
= 2!  3! = (2  1)  (3  2  1) = 60

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Anees Hussain Salman Ghaffar

Concept 3: The number of ways in which certain objects can be arranged in a straight line
such some of the objects are always kept together.

Example 1: The number of ways in which 4 Pakistanis, 5 Indians, and 2 Chinese can be
arranged in a straight line in such a way that members of each nationality always stand
together, is
3!  (4!  5!  2!) = (6  24  120  2) = 34,560

Arrangements Arrangements within

of the groups each group

Example 2:
The number of ways in which 3 couples can be arranged in a straight line, such that
members of each couple are always together = 3! x (2! x 2! x 2!) = 48

Concept 4:
The number of ways in which n different objects can be arranged in a circle  (n – 1)!

Example: The number of ways in which 5 people can be arranged around a round table
= (5 – 1)! = 4! = 24

Concept 5:
The number of ways in which n different objects can be arranged around a circular object
( n  1)!
that can be turned over (such as ring, necklace, bracelet) 
2

Example: The number of ways in which 5 stones can be arranged around a necklace
(5  1)! 4!
= = = 12
2 2

Concept 6:
The number of ways in which r objects can be selected and arranged from n objects is
n!
given by the formula  nPr =
(n  r )!

Example 1: The number of ways in which a President, VP and Secretary can be chosen
from a group of 10 = 10P3 = 10 x 9 x 8 = 720

Example 2: The number of ways in which 6 teachers can be assigned to 4 classes

= 6P4 = 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 = 360

Example 3: The number of 3 digit numbers that can be formed using the digits
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 using each digit only once = 6 x 5 x 4 = 120

Example 4: The number of 3 digit numbers that can be formed using the digits
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 when repetition of a digit is allowed = 6 x 6 x 6 = 216

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Anees Hussain Salman Ghaffar

Note: If the digits include 0, remember that 0 cannot appear in the first position, since if
it did appear in the first position, the number would not be a 3-digit number.

Example 5: The number of 3 digit numbers that can be formed using the digits
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 using each digit only once = 5 x 5 x 4 = 100

Example 6: The number of 3 digit numbers that can be formed using the digits
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 when repetition of a digit is allowed = 5 x 6 x 6 = 180

Combinations:

Concept 1:
The number of combinations of r objects from n different objects is
n
n Pr n!
Cr = = ( n  r )!  r!
r!

Example 1: The number of ways in which you can select a team of three people from a
10  9  8
group of 10 people = 10C3 = 3  2  1 = 120

Example 2: The number of ways in which you can select a team 3 boys and 2 girls from a
10  9  8 65
group of 10 boys and 6 girls = 10C3 x 6C2 = 3  2  1 x 2  1 = 1,800

Concept 2:
If there are n teams in a tournament, and they all play matches against each other once,
n  ( n  1)
then the total number of matches that will be played  nC2 =
2

Concept 3:
If n people all shake hands with each other once, then the total number of hand shakes
n  ( n  1)
will be  nC2 =
2

Note: If n people send postcards to each other once, then the total number of postcards
sent will be  nP2 = n x (n – 1)

Concept 4:
If there are n points, and you want to make lines connecting those points together, then
n  (n  1)
the total number of lines that will be made  nC2 =
2