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Shared birthdays in a room of N people

Question

Assume 365 equally likely birthdays and ignore leap years.

(a) For a room of N≤365N\le365 people, find the probability that two or more of them share a birthday.

(b) You are one of NN people in a room. Find the probability that at least one of the others has your birthday.

Short answer

(a) 1−365!(365−N)! 365N1-\dfrac{365!}{(365-N)!\,365^N}; (b) 1−(364365)N−11-\left(\tfrac{364}{365}\right)^{N-1}. In both cases compute the complement. (a) All birthdays distinct has 365⋅364⋯(366−N)365\cdot364\cdots(366-N) favourable assignments out of 365N365^N. (b) Each of the other N−1N-1 people independently avoids your birthday with probability 364365\tfrac{364}{365}.

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