Practice Worksheet: Probability
Distributions
Focus: Normal, Binomial, and Poisson Distributions Target: IT Recruitment Exams (Virtusa,
TCS, Accenture)
Part 1: The Questions
1. [Normal] A placement exam has a mean score (\mu) of 160 and a standard deviation
(\sigma) of 20. If a student scores 190, calculate their Z-score and explain its meaning.
2. [Normal] Using the 68-95-99.7 rule, if the heights of employees in an office are normally
distributed with \mu = 170\text{ cm} and \sigma = 5\text{ cm}, what percentage of employees are
between 160\text{ cm} and 180\text{ cm} tall?
3. [Normal] The battery life of a laptop model is normally distributed with a mean of 8 hours and
a standard deviation of 0.5 hours. What is the probability that a randomly selected laptop lasts
more than 9 hours?
4. [Binomial] A software company finds that 10\% of their code modules have minor bugs. If a
project uses 40 independent modules, find the mean and variance of the number of modules
with bugs.
5. [Binomial] A recruiter sends 4 emails to candidates. Each candidate has a 0.5 probability of
replying. What is the probability that exactly 2 candidates reply?
6. [Binomial] In a logic test with 6 questions, each having a 0.5 chance of being answered
correctly, what is the probability of getting at least one question right?
7. [Poisson] A web server receives an average of 3 requests per minute. What is the probability
that the server receives exactly 2 requests in a specific minute? (Use e^{-3} \approx 0.0498)
8. [Poisson] If the number of typos in a technical document follows a Poisson distribution where
the variance is 4, what is the probability of finding zero typos in a randomly selected page?
(Use e^{-4} \approx 0.0183)
9. [Poisson] A call center receives 10 calls per hour on average. What is the expected number
of calls (\lambda) and the probability of receiving no calls in a 6-minute interval? (Use e^{-1}
\approx 0.3679)
10. [Mixed] A distribution is defined where the Mean is 6 and the Variance is 6. Which
distribution is this most likely to be? If it were a Binomial distribution with n=10 and p=0.6, what
would the variance be?
Part 2: Step-by-Step Solutions
1. Solution:
● Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma} = \frac{190 - 160}{20} = \frac{30}{20} = 1.5.
● Meaning: The student is 1.5 standard deviations above the average.
2. Solution:
● 160\text{ cm} = \mu - 2\sigma and 180\text{ cm} = \mu + 2\sigma.
● By the rule, the area between \pm 2\sigma is 95%.
3. Solution:
● Z = \frac{9 - 8}{0.5} = 2.0.
● Area between Z = -2 and Z = +2 is 95\%. The "tails" outside this range total 5\%.
● Since the curve is symmetric, the upper tail (more than 9 hours) is 5\% / 2 =
\mathbf{2.5\%} (or 0.025).
4. Solution:
● n = 40, p = 0.1, q = 0.9.
● Mean (\mu) = n \cdot p = 40 \times 0.1 = \mathbf{4}.
● Variance (\sigma^2) = n \cdot p \cdot q = 40 \times 0.1 \times 0.9 = \mathbf{3.6}.
5. Solution:
● n = 4, k = 2, p = 0.5.
● P(X=2) = \binom{4}{2} (0.5)^2 (0.5)^2 = 6 \times 0.25 \times 0.25 = \mathbf{0.375}.
6. Solution:
● P(X \ge 1) = 1 - P(X = 0).
● P(X = 0) = \binom{6}{0} (0.5)^0 (0.5)^6 = 1 \times 1 \times 0.015625 = 0.015625.
● P(X \ge 1) = 1 - 0.015625 = \mathbf{0.9843}.
7. Solution:
● \lambda = 3, k = 2.
● P(X=2) = \frac{e^{-3} \cdot 3^2}{2!} = \frac{0.0498 \times 9}{2} = \frac{0.4482}{2} =
\mathbf{0.2241}.
8. Solution:
● In Poisson, Mean = Variance. So, \lambda = 4.
● P(X=0) = \frac{e^{-4} \cdot 4^0}{0!} = e^{-4} = \mathbf{0.0183}.
9. Solution:
● \lambda for 60 mins = 10.
● \lambda for 6 mins = 10 \times (\frac{6}{60}) = 1.
● P(X=0) = \frac{e^{-1} \cdot 1^0}{0!} = e^{-1} = \mathbf{0.3679}.
10. Solution:
● If Mean = Variance, it is a Poisson Distribution.
● For Binomial: Variance = n \cdot p \cdot q = 10 \times 0.6 \times 0.4 = \mathbf{2.4}.