Systematic listing and the product rule for counting worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A photography studio offers 4 backdrops and 3 outfits for a portrait session. The plain grey backdrop, one of the 4 backdrops, cannot be used with the formal suit outfit, one of the 3 outfits. Work out how many different backdrop-and-outfit combinations are possible.

2.A 3-character PIN starts with one letter chosen from A, B, C, D and E, followed by two different digits chosen from 1 to 9 (no digit may be used twice in the same PIN). Work out how many different PINs are possible.

3.Two-digit numbers are formed using the digits 2, 5, 7 and 8, and each digit may be used only once in a number. Work out how many of these two-digit numbers are even.

4.A café meal deal is one sandwich, one snack and one drink. There are 4 different sandwiches, 3 different snacks and 2 different drinks to choose from. Work out how many different meal deals are possible.

5.Two-digit numbers are made using the digits 1, 2, 3 and 4, and no digit may be used twice in the same number. Work out how many different two-digit numbers can be made.

6.A café sells ice cream in three flavours: vanilla, mango and pistachio. Isla buys a cone with two scoops, using two different flavours, one for the bottom scoop and one for the top scoop. Work out how many different cones she could buy.

7.A restaurant offers a lunch deal of one starter from 5 options, one main from 6 options and one dessert from 3 options. Work out how many different lunch deals are possible.

8.A café is planning its lunch menu. It will offer one soup from 3 choices and one sandwich from 4 choices, but the mushroom soup, one of the 3 soups, will only be served with the cheese sandwich, one of the 4 sandwiches, on a normal day. Work out how many different soup-and-sandwich combinations are available on a normal day.

9.A netball team has 8 players. Two of them are chosen to be captains, and the two captains have equal standing. Work out how many different pairs of captains could be chosen.

10.A car manufacturer offers a car in 6 colours and 4 trim levels. Two colour-and-trim combinations are not available: red with sport trim, and white with sport trim. Work out how many different colour-and-trim combinations are available.

11.A bag holds 5 different sweets. Noah takes 2 of the sweets out of the bag together, so the order in which he takes them does not matter. Work out how many different pairs of sweets he could take.

12.Ten athletes run in a final. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded to the first three athletes to finish, and there are no ties. Work out how many different ways the three medals can be awarded.

13.Two fair six-sided dice are rolled together. One die is red and the other is blue. Work out how many different outcomes are possible.

14.Five different books are placed in a row on a shelf. Work out how many different orders the five books can be placed in.

15.A board game has 5 different character pieces and 4 different colour tokens. The dragon piece can only be used with the gold token. Work out how many different combinations of one character piece and one colour token are possible.