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There are 6 distinct letters of the English alphabet and 4 d GMAT Problem Solving

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Sayantani Barman

Experta en el extranjero | Updated On - Mar 16, 2023

Question: There are 6 distinct letters of the English alphabet and 4 distinct digits. All possible 6 character alpha-numero codes are generated using any 4 letters of the alphabet and any 2 available digits. If in any given code, the characters are all distinct, then what is the maximum number of such codes that can be generated?

         A. 4320
         B. 64800
         C
. 8800
         D. 22000

Answer: B

Approach Solution (1):

4 letters from 6 can be selected in 6C4 ways or 15 ways
2 numbers from 4 can be selected in 4C2 ways or 6 ways
Now, we have selected 6 characters in 15 * 6 = 90 ways
The 6 characters can be arranged in 6! Ways or 720 ways
Therefore, the total number of codes is 90* 720 = 64800
Correct option: B

Approach Solution (2):
Total number of digits in the code is 6
Out of this, 4 are alphabets = 6C4 ways = 15
The other 2 are numeric digits = 4C2 ways = 6
Now these 6 digits can be arranged among themselves in 6! Ways
So the answer is 15*6*6! = 64800
Correct option: B

Approach Solution (3):
Let’s first find the number of codes in the format LLLLDD where L denotes a letter and D denotes a digit. We must choose 4 of 6 letters, and repeats are not allowed for any individual code. Since order matters, there are 6P4 ways to choose the letters. Similarly, from 4 digits, we must choose 2, and repeats in any individual code are not allowed. Since order matters, this can be done on 4P2 ways
Thus, the number of possible digit/code combinations of the format LLLLDD is:
6P4 * 4P2 = (6*5*4*3) * (4*3) = 360*12 = 4,320
Next, let’s find the number of different formats (such as LLDLLD or DDLLLL etc.) that one can create a code. We notice that LLLLDD can be arranged in 6!/(4!*2!) = (6*5)/2 =15 ways
Any one of these 15 formats has the same number of codes are LLLLDD; therefore these are a total of 4,320*15 = 64,800 possible codes.
Correct option: B

“There are 6 distinct letters of the English alphabet and 4 distinct digits. All possible 6 character alpha-numero codes are generated using any 4 letters of the alphabet and any 2 available digits. If in any given code, the characters are all distinct, then what is the maximum number of such codes that can be generated?”- is a topic of the GMAT Quantitative reasoning section of GMAT. This question has been taken from the book “GMAT Official Guide Quantitative Review”. To solve GMAT Problem Solving questions a student must have knowledge about a good amount of qualitative skills. The GMAT Quant topic in the problem-solving part requires calculative mathematical problems that should be solved with proper mathematical knowledge.

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