Question

Nine athletes, no two of whom are the same height, try out for the basketball team. One at a time, they draw a wristband at random, without replacement, from a bag containing $3$ blue bands, $3$ red bands, and $3$ green bands. They are divided into a blue group, a red group, and a green group. The tallest member of each group is named the group captain. What is the probability that the group captains are the three tallest athletes?

$\dfrac{2}{9}$

$\dfrac{2}{7}$

$\dfrac{9}{28}$

$\dfrac{1}{3}$

$\dfrac{3}{8}$

Answer: C

Concepts:basic probability symmetry

Difficulty rating: 1590

Solution:

Each group has $3$ slots. The three tallest athletes are the captains precisely when they fall into three different groups. Placing them one at a time into the $9$ slots, the second must avoid the first's group ( $6$ of the remaining $8$ slots) and the third must avoid both used groups ( $3$ of the remaining $7$ slots). The probability is $\dfrac{6}{8} \cdot \dfrac{3}{7} = \dfrac{9}{28}.$

Thus, the correct answer is C.

2025 AMC 12B Problem 11

Answer: C

Difficulty rating: 1590

Solution:

Problem 11 in Other Years