Skip to content

Red candies running out before blue and green

Question

A jar contains 1010 red, 2020 blue and 3030 green candies, which are taken out one by one in uniformly random order. What is the probability that when the final red candy is removed, the jar still holds at least one blue and at least one green candy?

Short answer

7/127/12. We need red to be the first colour to run out. Case 1: the last candy is green (3060\tfrac{30}{60}) and, among red and blue, the last is blue (2030\tfrac{20}{30}). Case 2: the last candy is blue (2060\tfrac{20}{60}) and, among red and green, the last is green (3040\tfrac{30}{40}). Total 13+14=712\tfrac13+\tfrac14=\tfrac7{12}.

Adapted from Zhou, A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews, sec. 4.3 Conditional Probability and Bayes' Formula, 'Candies in a jar', p.78; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

See the hint and the full worked solution in the question bank (free account).

Open the worked solution

Lessons behind this question

Start with a free lesson: Probability Fundamentals is part of a free topic. Create a free account, no card needed, to read it in full with worked solutions.

Read it free