Introduction to Probability and Statistics

PGP Term I
Instructor: Prof. Sayantan Banerjee
IIM Indore

Problems on Poisson, Uniform and Exponential distributions

1. A call center receives an average of 100 calls per hour, and the number of calls follows
a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that the call center will receive exactly
120 calls in the next 75 minutes?

2. A car rental agency experiences an average of 2 accidents per day, which is modeled
by a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that there will be at least one day
in the next month with no accidents?

3. A manufacturing company produces light bulbs with an average defect rate of 0.5%.
If a customer purchases a pack of 200 light bulbs, find the probability that exactly one
of the bulbs will be defective.

4. A supermarket sells an average of 500 cans of a particular soft drink each day, and the
number of sales follows a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that there will
be no more than 470 sales on any given day?

5. A bank experiences an average of 6 fraud attempts per week, which follows a Poisson
distribution. Calculate the probability that there will be no fraud attempts in the next
10 days.

6. A software company receives an average of 15 bug reports per week for a particular
application, which is modeled by a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that
they will receive exactly 20 bug reports in the next 2 weeks?

7. A restaurant receives an average of 40 online delivery orders per day, and the number
of orders follows a Poisson distribution. Find the probability that there will be more
than 50 delivery orders on any given day.

8. A retail store sells an average of 150 units of a product each week, which is modeled
by a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that they will sell between 140 and
160 units in the next week?

9. A travel agency experiences an average of 3 flight cancellations per month, which

10. A software development team experiences an average of 4 coding errors per week, which
is modeled by a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that they will encounter
more than 10 errors in the next 4 weeks?

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11. The time between customer arrivals at a service center follows an exponential distri-
bution with a mean of 10 minutes. Find the probability that the next customer will
arrive within 5 minutes.

12. The lifespan of a certain type of electronic component follows an exponential distri-
bution with a mean of 5 years. Calculate the probability that a randomly chosen
component will fail within the first year of use.

13. The time taken by a customer service representative to handle a customer query follows
an exponential distribution with a mean of 8 minutes. Find the probability that a
randomly chosen query will be handled in less than 5 minutes.

14. The inter-arrival time of emails received by a company’s support team follows an
exponential distribution with a mean of 2 hours. Calculate the probability that the
next email will arrive within 30 minutes.

15. The time it takes for a customer to complete an online survey follows an exponential
distribution with a mean of 6 minutes. Find the probability that a randomly chosen
customer will take over 10 minutes to complete the survey.

16. The time it takes for a helpdesk to resolve a technical issue follows an exponential
distribution with a mean of 15 minutes. Calculate the probability that a randomly
chosen issue will be resolved in less than 5 minutes.

17. The service time at a fast-food drive-thru follows an exponential distribution with a
mean of 3 minutes. Find the probability that a randomly chosen customer will spend
more than 5 minutes at the drive-thru.

18. The time it takes for a maintenance team to repair a machine follows an exponential
distribution with a mean of 2 hours. Calculate the probability that a randomly chosen
repair will be completed within 1 hour.

19. The time between consecutive arrivals of buses at a bus stop follows an exponential
distribution with a mean of 20 minutes. Find the probability that the next bus will
arrive within 15 minutes.

20. The processing time for a batch of invoices in a billing system follows an exponential
distribution with a mean of 30 minutes. Calculate the probability that a randomly
chosen batch of invoices will be processed in more than 45 minutes.

21. A factory produces metal sheets with a length uniformly distributed between 40 inches
and 60 inches. Calculate the probability that a randomly chosen metal sheet will have
a length greater than 55 inches.

22. The time taken by a machine to complete a task is uniformly distributed between 10
seconds and 30 seconds. Find the probability that the machine will complete the task
in less than 20 seconds.

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23. A delivery service promises to deliver packages between 9 AM and 5 PM, with the
delivery time uniformly distributed. Calculate the probability that a package will be
delivered after 3 PM.

24. The waiting time at a bank teller follows a continuous uniform distribution between 2
minutes and 5 minutes. Find the probability that a customer will wait for more than
3 minutes.

25. A company sells products with weights uniformly distributed between 2 kg and 5 kg.
Calculate the probability that a randomly chosen product will weigh less than 3.5 kg.

26. The completion time of a project is uniformly distributed between 30 days and 60 days.
Find the probability that the project will be completed in more than 45 days.

27. The temperature on a particular day follows a continuous uniform distribution between
20 degrees C and 30 degrees C. Calculate the probability that the temperature will be
below 25 degreees C.

28. The processing time of a computer program is uniformly distributed between 5 seconds
and 15 seconds. Find the probability that the program will finish in less than 8 seconds.

29. A restaurant takes 20 to 40 minutes to prepare a dish, with the time uniformly dis-
tributed. Calculate the probability that a dish will be prepared in more than 30
minutes.

30. The lifespan of a particular type of battery is uniformly distributed between 500 hours
and 1000 hours. Find the probability that a randomly chosen battery will last less
than 700 hours.

31. A software development team is working on a project with an average bug-fixing time
of 3 days, following an exponential distribution. The team has already worked on the
project for 4 days without fixing any bugs. What is the probability that they will fix
the first bug within the next 2 days?

32. An e-commerce company experiences a time gap of 20 minutes, on average, between two
successive customer purchases, following an exponential distribution. If the company
hasn’t received any purchase in the last 30 minutes, what is the probability that the
next purchase will happen within the next 10 minutes?

33. A logistics company experiences an average time of 6 hours between truck breakdowns,
following an exponential distribution. If a truck has been running smoothly for the
last 10 hours, what is the probability that it will break down within the next 4 hours?

34. A call center receives customer service calls with an average inter-arrival time of 5
minutes, following an exponential distribution. If the call center hasn’t received any
call in the last 20 minutes, what is the probability that the next call will arrive within
the next 10 minutes?

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35. A manufacturing plant faces machine failures with an average time between failures of
500 hours, following an exponential distribution. If a machine has been operating for
200 hours without failing, what is the probability that it will fail within the next 300
hours?
36. An internet service provider experiences an average time of 4 hours between internet
service outages, following an exponential distribution. If the internet has been working
without interruption for the last 6 hours, what is the probability that the next outage
will happen within the next 2 hours?
37. An insurance company processes claims with an average time of 5 days to process each
claim, following an exponential distribution. If a claim has been under process for the
last 7 days, what is the probability that it will be processed within the next 3 days?
38. A power grid experiences an average time of 2 hours between power outages, following
an exponential distribution. If there hasn’t been any power outage in the last 3 hours,
what is the probability that the next outage will happen within the next 1 hour?
39. A software company experiences an average time of 10 hours between two system
crashes, following an exponential distribution. If the system has been running smoothly
for the last 12 hours, what is the probability that it will crash within the next 8 hours?
40. A rental car company experiences an average time of 30 minutes between car returns,
following an exponential distribution. If a car hasn’t been returned in the last 2 hours,
what is the probability that the next car return will happen within the next 1 hour?
41. The number of website visits follows a Poisson distribution with an average rate of 2
visits per minute. Calculate the probability that there is at least 30 seconds between
any two website visits.
42. A manufacturing plant experiences machine failures with a Poisson distribution at an
average rate of 5 failures per day. Calculate the probability that there is at least 6
hours between any two machine failures.
43. A retail store experiences customer arrivals with a Poisson distribution at an average
rate of 10 customers per hour. Calculate the probability that there is at least 10
minutes between any two customer arrivals.
44. The number of emails received by an office employee follows a Poisson distribution
with an average rate of 3 emails per hour. Calculate the probability that there is at
least 20 minutes between any two email arrivals.
45. A telecommunications company receives customer support calls with a Poisson distri-
bution at an average rate of 4 calls per hour. Calculate the probability that there is
at least 15 minutes between any two support calls.
46. The number of defects in a production batch follows a Poisson distribution with an
average rate of 2 defects per batch. Calculate the probability that there is at least 2
hours between any two batches with defects.

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47. A transportation company experiences vehicle breakdowns with a Poisson distribution
at an average rate of 1 breakdown per 8 hours. Calculate the probability that there is
at least 3 hours between any two vehicle breakdowns.

48. The number of customer inquiries received by a helpdesk follows a Poisson distribution
with an average rate of 6 inquiries per hour. Calculate the probability that there is at
least 10 minutes between any two customer inquiries.

49. An online streaming service experiences user logins with a Poisson distribution at an
average rate of 5 logins per minute. Calculate the probability that there is at least 30
seconds between any two user logins.

50. The number of arrivals at a train station follows a Poisson distribution with an average
rate of 3 trains per hour. Calculate the probability that there is at least 20 minutes
between any two train arrivals.