Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.At a school fête, a tombola stall costs £1.50 to play. The probability of winning is 0.2, and the prize is worth £6. Work out the stall's expected profit, on average, from each game played.

2.Oliver flips three fair coins at the same time. Work out the probability that exactly two of the three coins land on heads.

3.A train company runs 25 trains a day, every day. The probability that any one train is late is 0.08. Work out how many late trains the company should expect over a period of 4 weeks.

4.The probability that it rains on a given morning is 0.3. If it rains, the probability that Priya's bus is late is 0.8. If it does not rain, the probability that her bus is late is 0.1. Work out the probability that her bus is late.

5.Priya and Ben each want to estimate the probability that a coin lands on heads. Priya flips the coin 50 times and works out her relative frequency. Ben flips the same coin 500 times and works out his relative frequency. Whose relative frequency is more likely to be close to the true probability? Give a reason for your answer.

6.The probability that Oliver's train is delayed on any morning is 0.3. Work out the probability that his train is not delayed.

7.An ordinary six-sided dice, numbered 1 to 6, is rolled 30 times and lands on a 6 seven times. Ravi says the theoretical probability of rolling a 6 and the relative frequency of rolling a 6 in this trial are the same number. Is Ravi right?

8.Two events are independent. The first has probability 2/5 and the second has probability 1/3. Work out the probability that both events happen.

9.In a survey of 45 students, 22 said they like reading, 18 said they like gaming, and 6 said they like both. Work out how many students like exactly one of reading or gaming.

10.A bag contains 5 red counters and 5 green counters. Three counters are taken out one at a time and are not put back. Work out the probability that all three counters are red.

11.A small pack contains 5 cards, numbered 1 to 5. One card is drawn at random from the pack, and a fair coin is flipped. Every outcome is listed as a pair, such as (3, H). Work out how many equally likely outcomes there are in total.

12.A survey of 60 readers records: 21 read only fiction, 17 read only non-fiction, 14 read both, and the rest read neither. Work out the probability that a randomly chosen reader reads exactly one of the two types, giving your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

13.The probability that a seed fails to germinate is 1/5. Three seeds are planted independently. Work out the probability that at least one of the three seeds germinates.

14.A red dice and a blue dice are rolled. Both dice are ordinary and fair. Work out the probability of getting a 1 on the red dice and a 2 on the blue dice.

15.A box contains counters that are silver, bronze or copper only. The probability that a counter taken at random is silver is 1/2 and the probability that it is bronze is 1/8. The box contains 64 counters in total. Work out the number of copper counters.