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

1.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.

2.A café offers sandwiches with one filling from 5 choices and one type of bread from 4 choices. Cheese and mustard, which is one of the 5 fillings, is not available on gluten-free bread, which is one of the 4 breads. Work out how many different sandwiches are possible.

3.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.

4.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.

5.A driving instructor is working out how many current-style UK number plates are possible. The format is 2 letters, then 2 digits, then a space, then 3 letters (for example AB12 CDE). The letters I, O and Q are never used in any letter position, leaving 23 allowed letters, but every letter and every digit may repeat anywhere on the plate. Work out how many different number plates are possible, giving your answer in standard form to 2 significant figures.

6.Ten players enter a chess tournament. Every player plays every other player exactly once. Work out how many games are played in the tournament.

7.A vending machine sells 4 types of crisps, 5 types of chocolate bar and 2 types of drink. Work out how many different combinations of one crisp packet, one chocolate bar and one drink can be bought.

8.A padlock code is formed from 3 different digits chosen from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (no digit may be used twice in the same code). Work out how many different codes can be made.

9.A florist has 5 different flowers. Freya picks 3 of them to make a small bunch, and the order in which she picks them does not matter. Work out how many different bunches she could make.

10.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.

11.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.

12.A school council must choose a committee of 3 pupils from 8 volunteers. The three places on the committee are all the same, so only which pupils are chosen matters. Work out how many different committees could be formed.

13.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.

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.By listing systematically, work out how many two-digit multiples of 5 can be made using the digits 0, 3 and 5, if each digit can be used at most once and the number cannot start with 0.