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Chance a random cube has last two digits 11

Question

An integer xx is selected uniformly at random from 1,2,…,10121,2,\dots,10^{12}. What is the probability that the decimal expansion of x3x^3 ends with the digits 1111?

Short answer

1/1001/100. Only the last two digits of xx matter. For x3x^3 to end in 11, xx must end in 11; writing x≡10a+1x\equiv 10a+1 gives x3≡30a+1(mod100)x^3\equiv30a+1\pmod{100}, so 3a≡1(mod10)3a\equiv1\pmod{10}, i.e. a=7a=7. Exactly one residue, 7171, works modulo 100100, and 101210^{12} is a multiple of 100100.

Adapted from Zhou, A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews, sec. 4.2 Combinatorial Analysis, 'Cubic of integer', p.71; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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