3/21/23, 10:21 PM Combinatorics | Brilliant

Combinatorics

Combinatorics is the study of counting. Mathematicians who study

combinatorics develop techniques to count outcomes, arrangements,
and combinations of objects. These counting strategies can be applied to
many different areas in mathematics — like probability, algebra, and
geometry.

Competitive combinatorics problems often present situations that

appear overwhelming and chaotic at first. To avoid being overwhelmed,
it's important to focus on ways to organize the objects being counted.
Look for ways to simplify the number of things you need to count:

separate them into cases,

focus only on the ones that meet certain criteria, and

look for patterns.

A standard deck with 52 cards, which has 26 red cards and 26 black, is
shuffled:

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What's the probability that the top card is the same color as the
bottom card?

Lower than 50%

Exactly 50%

Higher than 50%

🎉   Correct!

Show explanation

How many ways are there to arrange the letters in the word
“F LOOD ” such that the two O 's are not next to each other?

24
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3/21/23, 10:21 PM Combinatorics | Brilliant

36

60

120

👀 You saw the answer

Show explanation

Bombus, the bumblebee, wants to move from the top-left cell to the
bottom-right cell containing honey.

Each time he moves, he can only take a step to a neighboring cell that
moves him to the right:

How many ways does he have of reaching the honey in the last
cell?

89

128

144

268

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1024

🔎 Incorrect

Show explanation 3/3

If you randomly pick a card from the ten here, the probability of picking
an odd value is equal to the probability of picking an even value — the
ace has a value of 1 :

Picking two distinct cards from the ten above, does the sum of the
two values have a higher probability of being odd or even?

An odd sum is more likely.

An even sum is more likely.

They have the same probability.

🔎 Incorrect

Show explanation

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3/21/23, 10:21 PM Combinatorics | Brilliant

The combinatorics questions in math competitions frequently focus on

counting complicated arrangements and calculating the probabilities of
events. We have chapters on each of these categories in this course.
Since you don't need to work through all of the chapters in this course in
order, you can jump directly to whichever one you want to practice.

Our chapter on counting will teach you several visual and arithmetic
tricks for organizing and counting objects in a variety of ways. To learn
more, you can explore what's in this chapter.

Our chapter on probability will show you how to apply these counting
strategies to determine the real-life probability of events. It also delves
into more complicated ways to select objects, including ways to calculate
all possible combinations that can be selected from a group. To learn
more, you can explore what's in this chapter.

Finish lesson

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