Doubt

Of the 12 temporary employees in a certain company, 4 will be hired as permanent employees. If 5 of the 12 temporary employees are women, how many of the possible groups of 4 employees consist of 3 women and one man?

A. 22
B. 35
C. 56
D. 70
E. 105

Take the task of selecting the employees and break it into stages.

Stage 1: Select the 3 women
The order in which we select the women does not matter, so we can use combinations.
We can select 3 women from 5 women in 5C3 ways (= 10 ways)

Aside: If anyone is interested, we have a free video on calculating combinations (like 5C3) in your head: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-counting?id=789

Stage 2: Select the 1 man
There are 7 men, so we can complete this stage in 7 ways.

By the Fundamental Counting Principle (FCP), we can complete the two stages (and thus select the permanent employees) in (10)(7) ways ([spoiler]= 70 ways[/spoiler])

Answer: D
--------------------------

Note: the FCP can be used to solve the majority of counting questions on the GMAT. For more information about the FCP, watch our free video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-counting?id=775

Then you can try solving the following questions:

EASY
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/what-should- ... 67256.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/counting-pro ... 44302.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/picking-a-5- ... 73110.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/permutation- ... 57412.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/simple-one-t270061.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mouse-pellets-t274303.html


MEDIUM
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/combinatoric ... 73194.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/arabian-hors ... 50703.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/sub-sets-pro ... 73337.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/combinatoric ... 73180.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/digits-numbers-t270127.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/doubt-on-sep ... 71047.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/combinatoric ... 67079.html


DIFFICULT
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/wonderful-p- ... 71001.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/ps-counting-t273659.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/permutation- ... 73915.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/please-solve ... 71499.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/no-two-ladie ... 75661.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/laniera-s-co ... 15764.html

Cheers,
Brent