There are 3(A,B,C) participants participating in the competition. The first question is asked to A, next one to B and the next to C and this repeats. There are 3 ways in which an answer is scored, wrong guess: 1 point, partial answer: 2 points and correct answer: 3 points. The person who scores 4 points or above first wins the competition. The probability of scoring 1, 2 or 3 points for a question is same and also the same for every participant. Find the probability that A wins the competition if a question with a wrong guess or partial answer doesn't pass on to the others.

I was wondering if I could get some clarification on this question.  You say that if there is either a wrong guess or partial answer then question is not passed on.  To me this says that if a person answers a question correctly then that question is passed on.  Now my question is are the other contestants able to hear the answers that the others submit.  In other words if A answers the first question correctly, then that same question is passed on to B and if B was able to hear A's answer then obviously B will get the question correct as well and so will C, and then A will get the same question again and thus win with 6 points.  Now of course I could be misunderstanding the problem in which case my calculations are all wrong.

Posted by Daniel on 2009-01-25 14:04:13