AMC 8 Training: Combinatorics
Sahana Sri
March 5, 2023
1 Warm Up
Let R be a set of nine distinct integers. Six of the elements are 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, and
14. What is the the number of possible values of R?
(A) 4 B) 5 C) 6 D) 7 E) 8
How many positive 4 digit integers have four different digits, wehre the leading
digit is not zero, the integer is a multiple of 5, and 5 is the largest digit?
(A) 24 (B) 48 (C) 60 (D) 84 (E) 108
A baseball league consists of two four-team divisions. Each team plays ev-
ery other team in its division N games. Each team plays every team in the
other division M games with N > 2M and M > 4. Each team plays a 76-game
schedule. How many games does a team play within its own division?
(A) 36 (B) 48 (C) 54 (D) 60 (E) 72
1
2 Permutations and Combinations
2.1 Permutations
In a set of elements, a permutation is simply a rearrangement of its elements.
The number of ways to re-order all n objects is simply n! = 1 × 2 · · · × n. To
re-order r objects of of the set of n objects when order matters, we can use a
permutation:
This permutation formula often works best when all the objects in the set are
different. If you have identical objects, you can switch their places and still have
the same permutation. In this case, we need to make sure we do not over count
by dividing by n! for each repeated object.
If the i-th element has ai copies, then the total number of permutations is:
Examples:
1. Using only the letters given in each name, find the number of unique permu-
tations of letters you can make.
a. BOYAN
b. CLAIRE
c. FATIMA
d. RONNIE
2. Let S be the set of permutations of the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for which the first
term is not 1. A permutation is chosen randomly from S. Find the probability
that the second term is 2.
2
2.2 Combinations
A combination is a way to choose a subset from a set of elements. In a combi-
nation, order does not matter. The number of ways to choose r out of n objects
where order doesn’t matter is
We can also find this using Pascal’s Triangle to iteratively find the binomial
coefficient.
3 Other Counting Strategies
3.1 Complementary Counting
In some cases, it’s easier to count the elements that aren’t needed in a set. It
would be easier to count the number of elements and subtract those that you
don’t need. This is called complementary counting.
3.2 Stars and Bars
Stars and Bars is a strategy used to sort identical elements into distinct groups.
It utilizes stars (∗) and bars (|).
If we had 7 people who like chocolate ice cream and 3 people who have vanilla
ice cream, we can sort them as such: ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗| ∗ ∗∗
The divider bar | represents the separation between the two groups, while the
stars ∗ represent the elements in each group.
In general, the number of ways to split n identical objects split among m people
is equivalent to chosing m − 1 dividers among n + (m − 1) positions for a total
of
3
4 Practice
A single bench section at a school event can hold either 7 adults or 11 children.
When N bench sections are connected end to end, an equal number of adults
and children seated together will occupy all the bench space. What is the least
possible positive integer value of N ?
(A) 9 (B) 18 (C) 27 (D) 36 (E) 77
A positive integer divisor of 12! is chosen at random. The probability hat the
divisor chosen is a perfect square can be expressed as mn , where m and n are
relatively prime positive integers. What is m + n?
(A) 3 (B) 5 (C) 12 (D) 18 (E) 23
For a set of four distinct lines in a plane, there are exactly N distinct points
that lie on two or more of the lines. What is the sum of all possible values of N ?
(A) 14 (B) 16 (C) 18 (D) 19 (E) 21
A child builds towers using identically shaped cubes of different colors. How
many different towers with a height 8 cubes can the child build with 2 red
cubes, 3 blue cubes, and 4 green cubes? (One cube will be left out.)
(A) 24 (B) 288 (C) 312 (D) 1260 (E)40320
The numbers 1, 2, . . . , 9 are randomly placed into the 9 squares of a 33 grid.
Each square gets one number, and each of the numbers is used once. What is
the probability that the sum of the numbers in each row and each column is odd?
1 1 5 2 1
(A) 21 (B) 4 (C) 63 (D) 21 (E) 7
4
How many ways can a student schedule 3 mathematics courses – algebra, ge-
ometry, and number theory – in a 6-period day if no two mathematics courses
can be taken in consecutive periods? (What courses the student takes during
the other 3 periods is of no concern here.)
(A) 3 (B) 6 (C) 12 (D) 18 (E) 24
Alice has 24 apples. In how many ways can she share them with Becky and
Chris so that each of the three people has at least two apples?
(A) 105 (B)114 (C) 190 (D) 210 (E) 380
How many distinguishable arrangements are there of 1 brown tile, 2 green tiles,
and 3 yellow tiles in a row from left to right? (Tiles of the same color are indis-
tinguishable.)
(A) 210 (B) 420 (C) 630 (D) 840 (E) 1050
There are 20 students participating in an after-school program offering classes
in yoga, bridge, and painting. Each student must take at least one of these three
classes, but may take two or all three. There are 10 students taking yoga, 13
taking bridge, and 9 taking painting. There are 9 students taking at least two
classes. How many students are taking all three classes?
(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 5
Coin A is flipped three times and coin B is flipped four times. What is the
probability that the number of heads obtained from flipping the two fair coins
is the same?
29 23 1 35 1
(A) 128 (B) 128 (C) 4 (D) 128 (E) 2
