Combinatorics, filterable by difficulty and progress
# Title Topic Difficulty Status
01 Arranging MISSISSIPPI

How many distinct arrangements are there of the letters in MISSISSIPPI?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
02 Birthday Paradox

How many people need to be in a room before there is at least a 50% chance that two of them share a birthday?

Combinatorics 4.0/10 Unsolved
03 Counting Surjections

How many functions from a 5-element set onto a 3-element set hit every element of the codomain?

Combinatorics 2.6/10 Unsolved
04 Derangements

n letters are placed randomly into n addressed envelopes. As n → ∞, what does the probability that no letter ends up in its correct envelope approach?

Combinatorics 5.0/10 Unsolved
05 Eight Rooks

In how many ways can 8 rooks be placed on a chessboard so that no two attack each other?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
06 Grid Paths

How many right/up paths cross an 8 × 8 grid from corner to corner?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
07 Guaranteed Pair Sum

How many numbers must you pick from {1, ..., 100} to guarantee two of them sum to 101?

Combinatorics 4.0/10 Unsolved
08 Making Change

In how many ways can you make 25 cents from pennies, nickels, and dimes?

Combinatorics 4.0/10 Unsolved
09 Moser's Circle

Join six points on a circle with all chords. The region counts 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 suggest 32 next; what is it really?

Combinatorics 5.0/10 Unsolved
10 No Consecutive Elements

How many subsets of {1, ..., 10} contain no two consecutive integers?

Combinatorics 4.0/10 Unsolved
11 Partitioning a Set

In how many ways can a 5-element set be split into any number of nonempty unlabeled blocks?

Combinatorics 7.0/10 Unsolved
12 Paths Below the Diagonal

How many lattice paths from (0,0) to (10,10) never rise above the diagonal? The answer is a famous sequence in disguise.

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
13 Polygon Diagonals

How many diagonals does a convex 12-sided polygon have?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
14 Stars and Bars

How many nonnegative integer solutions does x₁ + x₂ + x₃ + x₄ = 10 have?

Combinatorics 3.6/10 Unsolved
15 The Ballot Problem

Candidate A gets 60 votes, Candidate B gets 40. What is the probability A was strictly ahead throughout the entire count?

Combinatorics 4.5/10 Unsolved
16 The Handshake Count

At a party of 20 people, everyone shakes hands with everyone else exactly once. How many handshakes?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
17 The Josephus Survivor

100 people stand in a circle and every second person is eliminated until one remains. Which position survives?

Combinatorics 5.0/10 Unsolved
18 The Mutilated Chessboard

Remove two opposite corners from a chessboard. Can 31 dominoes tile the remaining 62 squares?

Combinatorics 5.0/10 Unsolved
19 The Round Table

In how many distinct ways can 8 people sit around a circular table, counting rotations as the same?

Combinatorics 4.0/10 Unsolved
20 Threes and Fives

How many integers from 1 to 1000 are divisible by 3 or 5?

Combinatorics 2.2/10 Unsolved
21 Tiling with Dominoes

How many ways can a 2 × 10 board be tiled with 1 × 2 dominoes?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
22 Trailing Zeros

How many zeros does 100! end in?

Combinatorics 3.0/10 Unsolved
23 Two-Color Necklaces

How many distinct necklaces of 6 black-or-white beads exist, counting rotations as the same?

Combinatorics 3.3/10 Unsolved