Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /67 of 213

, 2026

Combinatorics Difficulty 1.3 Junior Find the answer Canada

Livy must enter a four-digit code to unlock her phone. She knows
that all four digits are different and that each digit is an integer
from 00 to 99 inclusive. If she remembers the first
three digits, but forgets the last digit, what is the probability that
she will enter the correct code on her first try?

Pick one

Solution

Each digit of Livy's code is a different integer from 00 to 99 inclusive, meaning that there are 1010 possible digits.

Since each digit of the code is different, Livy knows that the last
digit of the code is not equal to one of the first 33 digits. This leaves 103=710-3=7 possible digits from which Livy
will choose the last digit. The probability that Livy will choose the
correct last digit from these 77 on
her first try is 17\dfrac{1}{7}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,444 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.