World Cup fever!

India and South Africa play one day International Series until one team wins 4 matches . No match ends in a draw. Find in how many ways the series can be won.


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The answer is 70.

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5 solutions

Taking I for India and S for South Africa.

Suppose South Africa wins the series, then the last match is always won by South Africa.

Wins of I Wins of S Number of ways
(i) 0 4 4 1 C 0 ^{4-1}C_{0} = 1
(ii) 1 4 5 1 C 1 ^{5-1}C_{1} = 4 ! 3 ! = 4 \frac{4!}{3!} = 4
(iii) 2 4 6 1 C 2 ^{6-1}C_{2} = 5 ! 2 ! . 3 ! = 10 \frac{5!}{2!.3!} = 10
(iv) 3 4 7 1 C 3 ^{7-1}C_{3} = 6 ! 3 ! . 3 ! = 20 \frac{6!}{3!.3!} = 20

\Rightarrow Total no. of ways = 35

In the same number of ways India can win the series.

\Rightarrow Total no. of ways in which the series can be won = 35 + 35 = 70 = 35 +35 = \boxed{70}

For case after second one...you took the total number of wins as the total number of matches. For example, What i'm sayin is that, in second case, instead of 4!/3! , it should be 5!/4! i.e. total number of matches/no.of wins.

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

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bro i will elaborate the solution more to make it better understandable. and yeah i have used n 1 C a ^{n-1}C_{a} where a is the number of matches won by the losing team or say the number of matches lost by the winning team. and n is the total number of matches played.

Harshvardhan Mehta - 6 years, 3 months ago

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I get that, but it would be nice if you can derive the formula...thanks, it will help a lot!:)

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

I think its over-rated.... It should be a level 2 or level 3 problem...

Vighnesh Raut - 6 years, 3 months ago

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well just to tell you i aint d one who rates it... it is based on number of solvers and attempts..

Harshvardhan Mehta - 6 years, 3 months ago

Can someone Please help me understand Why in the 2nd ,3rd and 4th cases you have used n-1 C a instead of n C a?

Mehul Arora - 6 years, 3 months ago

That's a good solution...But next time u upload a sum like this support India....Watch the World Cup....if u know what i mean...

Saaket Sharma - 6 years, 3 months ago

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yeah i got what you mean perfectly..!!

Harshvardhan Mehta - 6 years, 3 months ago
Vaibhav Prasad
Feb 26, 2015

For the series to end, there have to be atmost 7 7 matches.

Let India be represented by a a and South Africa by b b

We get the following set

a a a a b b b a\quad a\quad a\quad a\quad b\quad b\quad b

The no. of permutations of a a and b b would be 7 ! 4 ! 3 ! = 35 \frac { 7! }{ 4!3! } =35

Now taking India as b b and South Africa as a a we again get 35 35

Thus total 35 + 35 = 70 35+35=70

Hey vaibhav though your answer is correct . However the method is wrong. You have assumed that other team wins 3 matches . But it is not necessary than other team does win 3 matches also suppose if this is the result aaaa and no win for b , then there will only be 4 matches .

Ujjwal Mani Tripathi - 6 years, 3 months ago

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isn't that what the set which I have given shows.

a a a a b b b a\quad a\quad a\quad a\quad b\quad b\quad b

This set shows that India has already won 4 matches with SA winning no matches (or vice versa) and the rest of b b s are too complete the set

Similarly, the set

a a b a a b b a\quad a\quad b\quad a\quad a\quad b\quad b

Shows that India won the series after 5 matches, and the rest 2 b b s have to be shown no matter what

Vaibhav Prasad - 6 years, 3 months ago

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Yes vaibhav understood it thank you

Ujjwal Mani Tripathi - 6 years, 3 months ago

Thats right @starwar clone , but then how is is his answer right?? If he skipped the cases??

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

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What @Vaibhav Prasad has done here (but not explicitly stated in his solution), is to create a bijection between a possible series where A wins, and a sequence of 4 a's and 3 'bs.

This is done by taking a series, and then adding additional b's to the end of it. For example, if the series was abaa, then we form abaabb by adding 2 more b's to it.

(Note that you still have to prove that this is a bijection).

For more detailed explanations, see this problem .

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 3 months ago

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@Calvin Lin Calvin Lin , it's funny that I do not know what a bijection is, yet used it.

Anyways, where can I know more about it ??

Vaibhav Prasad - 6 years, 3 months ago

@Calvin Lin Okay thanks, @Calvin Lin , and sorry for the inconvenience @Vaibhav Prasad and @Harshvardhan Mehta !!

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

He means to say that :

The maximum number of matches that can be played is 7. In which there should be 4 wins and 3 loses. So the number of ways in which a team can win the series is the number of permutation of 4 wins and 3 loses. i.e. 7 ! 4 ! × 3 ! = 35 \frac { 7! }{ 4!\times 3! } =35 Similarly for the other team. We get 70 \boxed{70} ways.

am i wrong @Vaibhav Prasad

Harshvardhan Mehta - 6 years, 3 months ago

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@Harshvardhan Mehta Ye, but what i am saying, is that this case considers only the series of 4 wins, and 3 losses. But it has nowhere been mentioned in the question that we need to consider the uttermost case. There have to be the consideration of cases with (4 wins, 2 losses), (4 wins, 1 loss) and (4 wins, no loss).

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

short and sweet.....upvoted

Vighnesh Raut - 6 years, 3 months ago

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Thats what i asked @Harshvardhan Mehta Why there can't be a series of 6 matches in which one team wins 4 and the other 3???

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

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hey i have already considered that case...

Harshvardhan Mehta - 6 years, 3 months ago

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@Harshvardhan Mehta then how come, you and @Vighnesh Raut have got the same answer????

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 3 months ago

hey vaibhav correct answer should be 102. FOR INDIA LLLL no. of combinations =1 LLLWL no. of combinations=5 LLLWWL no. of combinations=15 LLLWWWL no. of combinations=35 SAME FOR SOUTH AFRICA HENCE TOTAL NO. OF COMBINATION=2*(1+5+15+35)=102

Prakhar Srivastava - 6 years, 3 months ago

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in LLLWL number of combinations is 4 as LLLLW is not taken a case. similarly for all others..

Vighnesh Raut - 6 years, 3 months ago
Ossama Ismail
May 17, 2019

All series may come from any combination of: W.W.W.W.L.L.L.L. = 8 ! 4 ! × 4 ! = 70 = \dfrac{8!}{4! \times 4!} =70

Samagra Sharma
Mar 6, 2015

A more elegant solution would be to find out the number of ways to arrange 4 'W' 's (wins) and 3 'L' 's (loss) in a row. = 7!/(4!3!)=35 (for one team)

Joel Yip
Mar 4, 2015

If There are 4 matches won, obviously there are at most seven matches. So take the answer of 7C4 and multiply by 2, because both sides can win. The answer is 35x2=70

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