1

GATE Problems in Probability

Abstract—These problems have been selected from are independent, then the probability of getting
GATE question papers and can be used for conducting ”head” for the first time in the fifth toss is........
tutorials in courses related to a first course in probability.

7) Given Set A = [2,3,4,5] and Set B =

1) An urn contains 5 red balls and 5 black balls.In
[11,12,13,14,15], two numbers are randomly
the first draw, one ball is picked at random
selected,one from each set. What is probability
and discarded without noticing its colour.The
that the sum of the two numbers equals 16?
probability to get a red ball in the second draw
is
1 4 5 6 (A) 0.20 (B) 0.25 (C) 0.30 (D) 0.33
(A) (B) (C) (D)
2 9 9 9
8) Consider a dice with the property that the
2) There are 3 red socks, 4 green socks and 3 blue probability of a face with n dots showing up is
socks.You choose 2 socks.The probability that proportional to n. The probability of the face
they are of the same colour is with three dots showing up is......
1 7 1 4
(A) (B) (C) (D)
5 30 4 15 9) Step 1. Flip a coin twice.
Step 2. If the outcomes are (TAILS, HEADS)
3) The probability that a k-digit number does then output Y and stop.
NOT contain the digits 0,5, or 9 is Step 3. If the outcomes are either (HEADS,
HEADS) or (HEADS, TAILS), then output N
(A) 0.3k (B) 0.6k (C) 0.7k (D) 0.9k and stop.
Step 4. If the outcomes are (TAILS, TAILS),
then go to Step 1.
4) Three fair cubical dice are throen simultane- The probability that the output of the experi-
ously. The probability that all three dice have ment is Y is (upto two decimal places)......
the same number of dots on the faces showing
up is (up to third decimal place)...........
10) Let X and Y denote the sets containing 2 and
20 distinct objects respectively and F denote
5) Candidates were asked to come to an inter- the set of all possible functions defined from
view with 3 pens each. Black,blue,green and X and Y. Let f be randomly chosen from F.
red were the permitted pen colours that the The probability of f being one-to-one is........
candidate could bring. The probability that a
candidate comes with all 3 pens having the
same colour is....... 11) The probability that a given positive integer
lying between 1 and 100 (both inclusive) is
NOT divisible by 2,3 or 5 is......
6) The probability of getting a ”head” in a single
toss of a biased coin is 0.3. The coin is tossed
repeatedly till a ”head” is obtained. If the tosses 12) P and Q are considering to apply for a job. The
 2

1
probability that P applies for the job is , the 18) A box contains 4 white balls and 3 red balls.
4 In succession, two balls are randomly selected
probability that P applies for the job given that
1 and removed from the box. Given that the first
Q applies for the job is , and the probability removed ball is white, the probability that the
2
that Q applies for the job given that P applies second removed ball is red is
1
for the job is . Then the probability that P 1 3 1 4
3 (A) (B) (C) (D)
does not apply for the job given that Q does 3 7 2 7
not apply for the job is

4 5 7 11 19) Let X be a random variable

 with probability
(A) (B) (C) (D) 
0.2 |x| 6 1
5 6 8 12
density function f (x) = 0.1 1 6 |x| 6 4

0
13) Two players, A and B, alternately keep rolling otherwise.
a fair dice. The person to get a six first wins The probability P (0.5 < X, 5) is..........
the game. Given that player A starts the game,
the probability that A wins the game is 20) Consider two identically distributed zero-mean
random variables U and V. Let the cumulative
5 1 7 6
(A) (B) (C) (D) distribution functions of U and 2V be F(x) and
11 2 13 11 G(x) respectively. Then,for all values of x

14) A continuous random variable X has a prob- (A) F (x) − G(x) 6 0 (C) (F (x) − G(x))x 6 0
ability density function f (x) = e−x , 0 < x <
∞. Then P (X > 1) is
(B) F (x) − G(x) > 0 (D) (F (x) − G(x))x > 0

(A) 0.368 (B) 0.5 (C) 0.632 (D) 1.0

21) Let U and V be two independent and iden-
tically distributed random variables such that
15) A random variable X has probability density 1
function(f (x) as given below: P (U = +1) = P (U = −1) = . The entropy
2
a + bx 0 < x < 1 H(U+V) in bits is
f (x) =
0 otherwise 3 3
(A) (B) 1 (C) (D) log2 3
2 4 2
If the expected value E[X] = , then P r[X <
3
0.5] is..........
22) Let U and V be two independent zero mean
1
Gaussian random variables of variances and
16) Two independent random variables X and Y are 4
1
uniformly distributed in the interval [−1, 1].The respectively. The probability P (3V > 2U)
1 9
probability that max[X, Y ] is less than is is
2
4 1 2 5
3 9 1 2 (A) (B) (C) (D)
(A) (B) (C) (D) 9 2 3 9
4 16 4 3
23) Two independent random variables X and Y
17) A fair coin is tossed till a head appears for the are uniformly distributed in the interval [−1, 1].
first time. The probability that the number of 1
requried tosses is odd,is The probability that max [X, Y ] is less than
2
is
1 1 2 3
(A) (B) (C) (D)
3 2 3 4
 3

3 9 1 2 k 1 2 3 4 5
(A) (B) (C) (D)
4 16 4 3 P(X=k) 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.1
(A) Both the student and the teacher are right
24) A binary symmetric channel (BSC) has a tran-
1
sition probability of . If the binary transmit (B) Both the student and the teacher are wrong
8
9
symbol X is such that P (X = 0) = , then
10
the probability of error for an optimum receiver (C) The student is wrong but the teacher is
will be right
7 63 9 1
(A) (B) (C) (D)
80 80 10 10 (D) The student is right but the teacher is
wrong
25) A fair coin is tossed till a head appears for the
first time. The probability that the number of
requried tosses is odd,is 30) If E denotes expectation, the variance of a
random variable X is given by
1 1 2 3
(A) (B) (C) (D)
3 2 3 4 (A) E[X 2 ] − E 2 [X] (C) E[X 2 ]

26) A fair dice is tossed two times. The probability

(B) E[X 2 ] + E 2 [X] (D) E 2 [X]
that the second toss result in a value that is
higher than the first toss is
2 2 5 1 31) An examination consists of two papers, Paper 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) and Paper 2. The probability of failing in Paper
36 6 12 2
1 is 0.3 and that in Paper 2 is 0.2. Given that
a student has failed in Paper 2, the probability
27) A fair coin is tossed 10 times. What is the
of failing in Paper 1 is 0.6. The probability of
probability that ONLY the first two tosses will
a student failing in both the papers is:
yield heads?


1 2


1 10 (A) 0.5 (B) 0.18 (C) 0.12 (D) 0.06
(A) 2 (C) 2

10


1 2 10


1 10
(B) C2 2 (D) C2 2 32) A probability density function is of the form
p(x) = Ke−α|x| , x ∈ (−∞, ∞)
28) Consider two independent random variables X The value of K is
and Y with identical distributions. The vari- (A) 0.5 (B) 1 (C) 0.5α (D) α
ables X and Y take value 0, 1 and 2 with
1 1 1
probabilities , and rrespectively. What
2 4 4 33) Consider a binary digital communication sys-
is the conditional probability P (X + Y =
2|X − Y = 0)? tem with equally likely 0’s and 1’s. When bi-
nary 0 is transmitted the voltage at the detector
1 1 input can lie between the level -0.25V and
(A) 0 (B) (C) (D) 1
16 6 +0.25V with equal probability: when binary 1
is transmitted, the voltage at the detector can
29) A discrete random variable X takes values from have any value between 0 and 1V with equal
1 to 5 with probabilities as shown in the table. probability. If the detector has a threshold of
A student calculates the mean of X as 3.5 and 2.0V (i.e., if the received signal is greater than
her teacher calculates the variance of X as 1.5. 0.2V, the bit is taken as 1), the average bit error
Which of the following statements is true? probability is
 4

(A) 0.15 (B) 0.2 (C) 0.05 (D) 0.5 (A) pq + (1 − p)(1 − q) (C) p(1 − q)

(B) pq (D) 1 − pq
34) Let X and Y be two statistically independent
random variables uniformly distributed in the
range (−1, 1) and (−2, 1) respectively. Let 40) Suppose A and B are two independent events
Z = X +Y , then the probability that [Z 6 −2] with probabilities P (A) 6= 0 and P (B) 6= 0.
is Let Ae and Be be their complements. Which one
of the following statements is FALSE?
1 1 1
(A) zero (B) (C) (D)
6 3 12 (A) P (A ∩ B) = P (A)P (B) (C) P (A ∪ B) = P (A) + P (B)

(B) P (A|B) = P (A) e ∩ B)

e = P (A)P
e (B)
e
(D) P (A
35) Let X be the Gaussian random variable ob-
tained by sampling the process at t = ti and
let Z ∞ 41) A digital communication system uses a rep-
1 −y2
Q(α) = √ e 2 dy etition code for channel encoding/decoding.
α 2π
During transmission, each bit is repeated three
The probability that [x 6 1] is times(0 is transmitted as 000, and 1 is trans-
  mitted as 111). It is assumed that the source
(A) 1 − Q(0.5) (C) Q 2√1 2 puts out symbols independently and with equal
  probability. The decoder operates as follows: In
(B) Q(0.5) 1 a block of three received bits, if the number of
(D) 1 − Q √
2 2
zeros exceeds the number of ones, the decoder
decides in favour of a 0, and if the number of
36) Let Y and Z be the random variables obtained ones exceeds the number of zeros, the decoder
by sampling X(t) at t = 2 and t = 4 decides in favour of a 1. Assuming a binary
respectively. Let W = Y-Z. The variance of W symmetric channel with crossover probability
is p = 0.1, the average probability of error is ........

(A) 13.36 (B) 9.36 (C) 2.64 (D) 8.00

42) Two random variables X and Y are
distributed
( according to
37) Let (X1 , X2 ) be independent random variables. (x + y) 0 6 x 6 10 6 y 6 1
X1 has mean 0 and variance 1, while X2 has fx,y (x, y) =
0 otherwise.
mean 1 and variance 4. The mutual information
I (X1 ; X2 ) between X1 and X2 in bits is....... The probability P (X + Y 6 1) is .......

38) Let the random variable X represent the num-
ber of times a fair coin needs to be tossed till
two consecutive heads appear for the first time.
The expectation of X is......
39) Let X ∈ [0, 1] and Y ∈ [0, 1] be two indepen-
dent binary random variables. If P (X = 0) =
p and P (Y = 0) = q, then P (X + Y > 1) is
equal to
43) A binary communication system makes use
of the symbols ”zero” and ”one”. There are
channel errors. Consider the following events:
• x0 :a ”zero” is transmitted
• x1 :a ”one” is transmitted
• y0 :a ”zero” is received
• y1 :a ”one” is received
The following probabilities are given: P (x0 ) =
1
2
, P (y0|x0 ) = 34 , and P (y0|x1 ) = 12 . The
information in bits that you obtain when you
learn which symbol has been received (while
you know that a ”zero” has been transmitted)
is .........
 5


−v 2
44) Let X be a zero mean unit variance Gaussian , and for v > 1, use Q(v) ≈ e 2
random variable. E[|X|] is equal to .........
When β = −0.3, the BER is closet to

45) If calls arrive at a telephone exchange such that (A) 10− 7 (C) 10− 4
the time of arrival of any call is independent
of the time of arrival of earlier or future calls,
the probability distribution function of the toatl (B) 10− 6 (D) 10− 2
number of calls in a fixed time interval will be
48) Consider the random process
(A) Poisson (C) Exponential X(t) = U + V t,
where U is a zero-meaan Gaussian random
(B) Gaussian (D) Gamma variable and V is a random variable distributed
between 0 and 2. Assume that U and V are
statistically independent. The mean value of the
46) Consider a communication scheme where the random process at t=2 is........
binary valued signal X satisfies
P {X = +1} = 0.75 and P {X = −1} = 0.25.
The received signal Y = X + Z, where Z is a 49) Consider the Z-channel given in Fig. 1. The
Gaussian random variable with zero mean input is 0 or 1 with equal probability.
and variance σ 2 . The received signal Y is fed
to the threshold detector. The output of the
threshold detector
( X̂ is:
+1 Y > τ
X̂ =
−1 Y 6 τ
To achieve minimum probability of error
P {X̂ 6= X}, the threshols τ should be

(A) strictly positive (D) strictly positive,

zero or strictly neg-
ative depending on Fig. 1.
(B) zero the nonzero value
of σ 2 If the output is 0, the probability that the input
(C) strictly negative is also 0 equals......

47) Consider a discrete-time channel Y = X + Z, 50) If P and Q are two random events, then the
where the additive noise Z is signal-dependent. following is TRUE:
In particular, given the transmitted symbol (A) Independence of P and Q implies that
X ∈ {−a, +a} at any instant, the noise Pr P ∩ Q = 0
sample Z is chosen independently from a
Gaussian distribution with mean βX and unit
variance. Assume a threshold detector with (B) Pr(P ∪ Q) > Pr(P ) + Pr(Q)
zero threshold at the receiver.
When β = 0, the BER was found to be (C) If P and Q are mutually exclusive, then
Q(a) = 1 × 10− 8. they must be independent
 Z ∞
1 −u2
Q(v) = √ e 2 du (D) Pr(P ∩ Q) 6 Pr(P )
2π v
 6

51) A fair coin is tossed three times in succession.

If the first toss produces a head, then the
probability of getting exactly two heads in
three tosses is:

1 3
(A) 8
(C) 8

1 3
(B) 2
(D) 4

52) The probability density function (PDF) of a

random variable X is as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 2.

The corresponding cumulative distribution

function (CDF) has the form

(A) Fig. 3 (C) Fig. 4

Fig. 4.

54) The distribution function fx (x) of a random

(B) Fig. 4 (D) Fig. 6 variable X is shown in Fig. 8. The probability
that X=1 is

(A) Zero (C) 0.55

53) The input X to the binary Symmetric Channel
(BSC) shown in the figures is ’1’ with (B) 0.25 (D) 0.30
probability 0.8. The cross-over probability is
1
. If the received bit Y=0, the conditional 55) Probability density function p(x) of a random
7
probability that ’1’ was transmitted is........ variable x is as shown below. The value of α is
 7

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

2 1
(A) (B)
c c
 8

For testing the null hypothesis H0 : f ≡ f0

against the alternative hypothesis H1 : f ≡ f1
at level of significance α = 0.19, the power of
the most powerful test is
(A) 0.729 (C) 0.615

(B) 0.271 (D) 0.385

Fig. 7.

57) Let the probability density function of a ran-

X be
dom variable 

x 0 ≤ x < 21
f (x) = c(2x − 1)2 12 < x ≤ 1

0 otherwise.
Then,the value of c is equal to

Fig. 8. 58) Suppose X and Y are two random variables

such that aX + bY is a normal random vari-
able for all a, b ∈ R. Consider the following
statements P,Q,R and S:
(P): X is a standard normal random variable.
(Q): The conditional distribution of X given
Y is normal.
(R): The conditional distribution of X given
X + Y is normal.
(S): X - Y has mean 0.

Which of the above statements ALWAYS hold

TRUE?
(A) both P and Q (C) both Q and S

Fig. 9.
(B) both Q and R (D) both P and S

2 1
(C) (D) 59) Let X be a random variable with the following
(b + c) (b + c)
cumulative distribution
 function:

 0 x<0
56) Let X be a random variable with probability 
x2 0 ≤ x < 1
F (x) = 3 2
density function
( f ∈ {f0 , f1 }, where 1

 ≤ x < 1
2x 0 < x < 1 
4 2
f0 (x) = 1 x ≥ 1.
0 otherwise

( Then P 41 < X < 1 is equal to
3x2 0 < x < 1
f1 (x) =
0 otherwise
 9

60) Let X1 be an exponential random variable bution function: 

with mean 1 and X2 a gamma random variable 
 0 x<0
with mean 2 and variance 2. If X1 and X2 are 
 1

4 0≤ x<1
independently distributed,then P (X1 < X2 ) is
F (x) = 13 1≤ x<2
equal to 

1
 2 ≤ x < 11

2 3
1 x ≥ 11
3
.
Common Data for the next two Questions : Then E(X) is equal to
Let X and Y be jointly distributed random
variables such that the conditional distribution
of Y , given X =x, is uniform on the interval
(x − 1, x + 1). Suppose E(X) = 1 and 65) Let X and Y be two random variables having
V ar(X) = 35 . the joint probability density function
(
2 0<x<y<1
f (x, y) =
0 otherwise.
61) The mean of the random variable Y is Then the
conditional probability
2 3
P X ≤ 3 |Y = 4 is equal to

1 3
(A) 2
(C) 2
5 2 7 8
(A) 9
(B) 3
(C) 9
(D) 9

(B) 1 (D) 2 66) Let Ω = (0, 1] be the sample space and let P (·)
be a probability function defined by
(
x
0 ≤ x < 12
P ((0, x]) = 2
62) The variance of the random variable Y is x 12 ≤ x ≤ 1.


Then P { 21 } is equal to
1
(A) 2
(C) 1

67) Suppose the random variable U has uniform

2 distribution on [0, 1] and X = −2 log U. The
(B) (D) 2
3 density of X(is
e−x x > 0
(A) f (x) =
0 otherwise.
63) Let the random variable X have the distribution
function:  (

 0 x<0 2e−2x x>0

 x (B) f (x) =

2 0≤ x<1 0 otherwise.
F (x) = 35 1≤ x<2




1
+ x8 2≤ x<3 (

 2
1 − x2
1 x ≥ 3. 2
e x>0
(C) f (x) =
Then P (2 ≤ X < 4) is equal to 0 otherwise.

(
1
2
x ∈ [0, 2]
(D) f (x) =
0 otherwise.
64) Let X be a random variable having the distri-
 10

68) Suppose X is a real-valued random vari- Let X and Y be random variables having the
able.Which of the following values CANNOT joining probability
 density function
be attained by E[X] and E[X 2 ], respectively?  1 −1
(x−y)2
 √2πy e
 −∞ < x < ∞,
2y

(A) 0 and 1 (C) 1

and 1 f (x, y) = 0<y<1
2 3 


0 otherwise
(B) 2 and 3 (D) 2 and 5
72) The variance of the random variable X is
69) Let Xn denote the sum of points obtained when
n fair dice are rolled together. The expectation 1 7
(A) (C)
and variance of Xn are 12 12
 n  n
7 35 2 7 35
(A) n and n respectively. (C) and respec-
2 12 2 12 1 5
tively. (B) (D)
7 35 4 12
(B) n and n respectively.
2 12
(D) None of the above
73) The covariance between the random variables
X and Y
70) Let X and Y be jointly distributed random
variables having the joint probability density 1 1
function ( (A) (C)
1 3 6
π
x2 + y 2 6 1
f (x, y) =
0 otherwise
1 1
Then P (Y > max(X, −X)) = (B) (D)
4 12
1 1
(A) (C)
2 4
Common Data for the next two Questions :
1 1 Let X and Y be continuous random variables
(B) (D) with the joint probability density function
3 6
(
ae−2y 0 < x < y < ∞
71) Consider two identical boxes B1 and B2 , where f (x, y) =
the box B(i = 1, 2) contains i + 2 red and 0 otherwise
5 − i − 1 white balls. A fair die is cast. Let the
number of dots shown on the top face of the die
74) The value of a is
be N. If N is even or 5, then two balls are drawn
with replacement from the box B1 , otherwise,
two balls are drawn with replacement from the (A) 4 (C) 1
box B2 . The probability that the two drawn
balls are of different colours is
(B) 2 (D) 0.5
7 12
(A) (C)
25 25
75) The value of E(X|Y = 2) is
9 16
(B) (D) (A) 4 (C) 2
25 25

Common Data for the next two Questions : (B) 3 (D) 1

 11

1 3
76) Let X and Y be two random variables having (A) (C)
the joint probability density function 4 4
(
2 0<x<y<1 1 (D) 1
f (x, y) = (B)
0 otherwise 2
Then the conditional probability P (X 6
2
3
|Y = 34 ) is equal to 81) E(X|Y = 12 )
5 7
(A) (C)
9 9 1
(A) (C) 1
4
2 8
(B) (D)
3 9 1 (D) 2
(B)
2
77) Let Ω = (0, 1] be the sample space and let P (.)
be a probability
( function defined by 82) If a random variable X assumes only positive
x
2
0 6 x < 12 integral values, with the probability
P ((0, x]) =
x 1 6x61 P (X = x) = 32 ( 13 )x−1 , x = 1, 2, 3, ...,
  2
Then P { 12 } is equal to....... then E(X) is

78) Let X be a random variable with the following 2

(A) (C) 1
cumulative distribution function: 9


 0 x<0 3

x2 0 6 x < 1 2 (D)
(B) 2
F (x) = 3 1
2 3

 6 x < 1

4 2
1 x>1 83) The joint probability density function of two
Then P ( 14 < x < 1) is equal to........ random variables
 X and Y is given as
 6
(x + y 2 ) 0 6 x 6 10 6 x 6 1
f (x, y) = 5
79) Let X1 be an exponential random variable with 0 elsewhere
mean 1 and X2 a gamma random variable with E(X) and E(Y ) are, respectively,
mean 2 and variance 2. If X1 and X2 are
independently distributed, then P (X1 < X2 )
is equal to..... 2 3 3 6
(A) and (C) and
5 5 5 5
Common Data for the next two Questions :
Let X and Y be two continuous random vari- 3 3 4 6
(B) and (D) and
ables with (
the joint probability density function 5 5 5 5
2 0 < x + y < 1, x > 0, y > 0
f (x, y) =
0 elsewhere. 84) Suppose the random variable U has uniform
distribution on [0, 1] and X = −2 log U. The
density of X is
80) P (X + Y < 12 ) is (
e−x x > 0
(A) f (x) =
0 otherwise
 12

(
2e−2x x>0
(B) f (x) =
0 otherwise


1 − x
e x>0
(C) f (x) = 2 2
0 otherwise


1
x ∈ [0, 2]
(D) f (x) = 2
0 otherwise

85) Suppose X is a real-valued random variable.

Which of the following values CANNOT be
attained by E[X] and E[X 2 ], respectively?
1 1
(A) 0 and 1 (C) and
2 3

(B) 2 and 3 (D) 2 and 5