CMI Entrance Exam 2020 Question Paper for M.Sc in Data Science

CHENNAI MATHEMATICAL INSTITUTE
M.Sc. Data Science Entrance Examination
4th October 2020

Enter your Admit Card Number : D − −

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS
• This booklet has 11 printed sheets, including this cover page. Sheet 2 (page 1) contains space to answer
part A, sheets 3 to 6 contain twenty questions in part A and sheets 7 to 11 contain twenty questions in
part B.
– For questions in part (A), you only have to write your answer on the designated page on the appro-
priate line. For example, if the answer is parts (a) and (c), write only (a) and (c) on the line and
if the answer is 2781, write this number on the line.
– For questions in part (B), you have to write your answer with short explanation in the space provided
below the question.
– For numerical answers, the following forms are acceptable: fractions, decimals, symbolic e.g.: nr ,


n P , n! etc.
r

For rough work use the blank pages at the end.

• Time allowed is 3 hours. Total points: 100 = 40 for part A + 60 for part B.

• Part A will be used for screening. Part B will be graded only if you score a certain minimum in part
A. However your scores in both parts will be used while making the final decision.

For office use only

Points Remarks

Part A

Part B

Total

B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 B10 Total

B11 B12 B13 B14 B15 B16 B17 B18 B19 B20 Total

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Part A - Answers

This is the only place that will be seen for grading part A. So carefully and clearly write the answers to
each question on the designated line below. Write only the final answers, do not show any intermediate work.
Illegible/unclear answers will not be considered.

A1. A11.

A2. A12.

A3. A13.

A4. A14.

A5. A15.

A6. A16.

A7. A17.

A8. A18.

A9. A19.

A10. A20.

1

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Notation
• A function f from a set A to a set B is said to be injective (or one-to-one) if f (x) = f (y) implies
x = y for all x, y ∈ A;

• f is said to be surjective (or onto) if for every y ∈ B there exists x ∈ A such that f (x) = y;

• f is said to be bijective if it is both injective and surjective;

• f is said to be invertible if there exists a function g from B to A such that f (g(y)) = y for all y ∈ B
and g(f (x)) = x for all x ∈ A and then g is said to be inverse of f and is denoted by f −1 .

• For a matrix A, |A| denotes the determinant of A and AT denotes the transpose of A.

• For a set X, X c denotes the complement of X.

Part A - Questions

This section consists of some questions requiring a single answer and some multiple choice questions.
For questions that ask you to calculate a value, you will be assessed based on the answer you provide.
No explanation is required. In multiple choice questions, there may be multiple correct choices. You
have to select all the correct options and no incorrect option to get full marks. There is no partial credit.
Write the correct options / answer in the space provided on page 1. Only page 1 will be seen for grading
part A.

1. Consider the following program. Assume that x and y are integers.

f(x, y)
{
if (y != 0)
return (x * f(x, y-1));
else
return 1;
}

What is f(6,3)?

(a) 243
(b) 729
(c) 125
(d) 216

3

2. Consider the matrices
   
0 0 0 0 15 5 4 3 2 1
 0 0 0 13 14   9 8 7 6 0 
   
 0
A= 0 10 11 12  and B= 12 11 10 0 0 .
  
 0 6 7 8 9   14 13 0 0 0 
1 2 3 4 5 15 0 0 0 0

Which of the following hold true?

(a) |A| = |B|
(b) trace(A) = trace(B)
(c) |A| = −|B|
(d) trace(AB) = trace(BA)

3. Consider the following program. Assume that all variables are integers. Note that x%y computes the
remainder after dividing x by y. The division is an integer division. For example, 1/3 will return zero
while 10/3 will return 3.

g(n)
{
result = 0;
i = 1;

repeat until (n == 0)
{
remainder = n%2;
n = n / 2;
result = result + (remainder * i);
i = i * 10;
}

return result;
}

What is g(25)?

(a) 11001
(b) 10011
(c) 11011
(d) 10101

4

4. Which of the following limits are correct?
x2 + 2x
(a) lim =1
x→0 2x
2x2 + x − 1 3
(b) lim =
x→1/2 2x − 1 2
(c) lim 18x3 − 12x2 + 1 = ∞
x→∞
(d) lim 18x3 − 12x2 + 1 = −∞
x→−∞

5. As per the data released by the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the number of Ph.D.
degrees conferred in Earth Sciences from the year 1948 to 1954 is as given in Table 5.

Year Degrees
1948 57
1949 88
1950 125
1951 135
1952 126
1953 146
1954 141

Based on the average of all available three year moving averages of annual growth rate, and the number
of degrees in 1954, what will be the (approximate) predicted number of degrees in earth sciences in 2020?
Note that a moving average or a rolling average is an average of a subset of data points. Choose the best
answer.

(a) 900
(b) 9,000
(c) 9,00,000
(d) 90,00,000

6. Suppose that A is an n × n matrix with n = 10 and b is an n × 1 vector. Suppose that the equation
Ax = b for an n × 1 vector does not admit any solution. Which of the following conclusions can be drawn
from the given information?

(a) A−1 does not exist.
(b) The equation AT x = b also does not admit any solution.
(c) |A| = 0.
(d) Suppose c is another n × 1 vector such that Ax = c also does not admit a solution. Then the vector
c is a constant multiple of the vector b.

5

7. Consider the following bar chart:

Which of the following are true?

(a) Number of students who scored A in Algebra is higher than the number of students who scored A
in Calculus.
(b) Percentage of students who scored A or B in algebra is lower than the percentage of students who
scored A or B in calculus.
(c) Calculus is easier than algebra.
(d) Considering this data, the average percentage of students scoring A is 12%.

8. Let A = ((aij )) be a 7 × 7 matrix with ai,i+1 = 1 for 1 ≤ i ≤ 6, a7,1 = 1 and all the other elements of the
matrix are zero. Which of the following statements are true?

(a) |A| = 1
(b) trace(A) = 0
(c) A−1 = A
(d) A7 = I, where I is the identity matrix

9. Let A and B be events such that P (A) = 0.4, P (B) = 0.5 and P (A ∪ B) = 0.7. Which of the following
are true? (For sets A, B, A∆B = (Ac ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B c )).

(a) A and B are mutually exclusive
(b) A and B are independent
(c) P (A∆B) = 0.1
(d) P (Ac ∪ B c ) = 0.8

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Description for the following 2 questions:
The lifespan of a battery in a car follows Gamma distribution with probability density function
β α −βx α−1
f (x) = e x , 0 < x < ∞,
Γ(α)

where α > 0 and β > 0 . The mean and variance of a Gamma distribution are E(X) = αβ and V(X) = βα2
respectively. From historical data the mean and variance of the lifespan of a battery are estimated as 4
years and 2 years respectively.

10. Which of the following statements are correct?

(a) α = 16 and β = 4
(b) α = 8 and β = 2
(c) E(X 2 ) = αβ ( 1+α
β )
(d) E(X 2 ) = 18

11. Out of a large number of cars produced by the automaker, the percentage of batteries that will last for
more than 8 years is

(a) "Z #
8
β α −βx α−1
e x dx × 100%.
0 Γ(α)

(b) " #
Z 8
β α −βx α−1
1− e x dx × 100%.
0 Γ(α)

(c) "Z #
∞
xβ α −βx α−1
e x dx × 100%.
8 Γ(α)

(d) "Z #
8
xβ α −βx α−1
e x dx × 100%.
0 Γ(α)

12. How many squares are there on a 7 x 7 chessboard?

(a) 49
(b) 204
(c) 203
(d) 140

7

13. It is mid-semester exam week at CMI and first-year students from both M.Sc. Data Science (DS) and
M.Sc. Computer Science (CS) have their exams scheduled for Monday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Lecture
Hall 1. The first row in Lecture Hall 1 has six seats. In how many different ways can three M.Sc. DS
students - Anish, Binish and Finish - and three M.Sc. CS students - Ramesh, Suresh, and Ragesh - be
seated in this row, in such a way that two students from the same course do not sit next to each other?

(a) 36
(b) 48
(c) 72
(d) 96

14. Suppose you roll two six-sided fair dice with faces numbered from 1 to 6 and take the sum of the two
numbers that turn up. What is the probability that:

• the sum is 12;
• the sum is 12, given that the sum is even;
• the sum is 12, given that the sum is an even number greater than 4?
1 1 1
(a) 36 , 18 , and 12 , respectively
1 1 1
(b) 36 , 18 , and 14 , respectively
1 1 1
(c) 36 , 16 , and 14 , respectively
1 1 1
(d) 36 , 16 , and 12 , respectively

15. Let f (x) be a real-valued function all of whose derivatives exist. Recall that a point x0 in the domain is
called an inflection point of f (x) if the second derivative f 00 (x) changes sign at x0 . Given the function
x5 x4
f (x) = − + 3x + 1, which of the following statements are true?
20 2
(a) x0 = 0 is not an inflection point.
(b) x0 = 6 is the only inflection point.
(c) x0 = 0 and x0 = 6, both are inflection points.
(d) The function does not have an inflection point.

16. Which of the following are true?
2019 2020
(a) <
2020 2021
1
(b) x + ≥ 2 for all x > 0
x
(c) 2 > 524
60

(d) 2314 < 3142

8

17. The identity
∞
1 X
= (2r)k
(1 − 2r)
k=0
is true

(a) if and only if r 6= 21
(b) if and only if 0 ≤ r < 21
(c) if and only if − 21 ≤ r < 12
(d) if and only if − 21 < r < 12

18. The sum and product of the roots of the polynomial 9x2 + 171x − 81 are, respectively:

(a) −19 and −9
(b) 19 and 9
(c) −9 and 19
(d) 9 and −19

19. Choose the conclusions that follow logically from the statements given below.

i Nobody who really appreciates A.R.Rahman fails to subscribe to his YouTube channel.
ii Owls are hopelessly ignorant of music.
iii No one who is hopelessly ignorant of music ever subscribes to A.R.Rahman’s YouTube channel.

(a) Anyone who subscribes to A.R.Rahman’s YouTube channel is hopelessly ignorant of music.
(b) Owls don’t really appreciate A.R.Rahman.
(c) Owls are not really appreciated by A.R.Rahman.
(d) Anyone who really appreciates A.R.Rahman is not hopelessly ignorant of music.

20. Which of the following inequalities are true?

(a) ex ≥ (1 + x) for x ≥ 0
(b) ex ≤ (1 + x) for x < 0
(c) ln(x) < (1 + x) for x > 0
(d) ex < x2 for all real numbers x

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Part B

For questions in part (B), you have to write your answer with a short explanation in the space provided below
the question. For numerical answers, the following forms are acceptable: fractions, decimals, symbolic e.g.: nr ,


n P , n! etc.
r

1. For any string str, length(str) returns the length of the string, append(str1,str2) concatenates str1
with another string str2, and trim(str) removes any spaces that exist at the end of the string str. The
function reverse(str, i, j) reverses the part of the string from position i to position j. Assume that
position 0 refers to the first character in the string. What does the following pseudo-code do?

def manipulate(string str)
{
reverse(str, 0, length(str)-1);
append(str, ‘ ’);
n = length(str);
j = 0;

for (i = 0; i < n; i=i+1) {
if (str[i] is ‘ ’) {
reverse(str, j, i-1);
j = i + 1;
}
}

trim(str);
return str;
}

 
0 −1
2. Consider the matrix A = . Find An , in terms of n, for n ≥ 2.
1 0

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3. The following graph shows the performance of students in an exam. The marks scored by every student
are a multiple of five. The j th -percentile u∗ for a discrete data x1 , x2 , . . . , xn is defined as follows. Let
j·n
x(1) , x(2) , . . . , x(n) be the ordering of the data in ascending order. Let t = 100 and let k be an integer such
that k ≤ t < (k + 1) and let s = t − k. Then u∗ = x(k) + s ∗ (x(k+1) − x(k) ). Here, x(n+1) is defined to be
x(n) .

Based on the information presented in the graph, answer the following questions.

(a) Compute the 10th percentile of marks.

(b) Is the median score higher than the mean score?

4. In the figure shown below, the circle has diameter 5. Moreover, AB is parallel to DE. If DE = 3 and AB
= 6, what is the area of triangle ABC?

12

The following description holds for the two problems below.
A permutation σ is a bijection from the set [n] = {1, 2, . . . , n} to itself. We denote it using the notation
 
1 2 ... n
,
σ(1) σ(2) . . . σ(n)
 
1 2 3
e.g. if n = 3 then denotes the permutation defined by σ(1) = 2, σ(2) = 3 and σ(3) = 1.
2 3 1
An inversion in σ is a pair (i, j) such that i < j but σ(i) > σ(j). The sign of a permutation σ (denoted
sgn(σ)) is defined to be (−1)inv(σ) , where inv(σ) denotes the total number of inversions in σ. In the above
example, there are 2 inversions corresponding to the pairs (1, 3) and (2, 3) so that sgn(σ) = (−1)2 = 1.
For each permutation σ, define a matrix Aσ as follows:
(
1 if σ(i) = j
Aσ (i, j) =
0 otherwise

5. Find sgn(σ), sgn(τ ), Aσ and Aτ for the following permutations:
   
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
σ= , τ= .
2 3 4 5 1 6 4 1 3 2 6 5

6. What are the determinants |Aσ | and |Aτ |? Can you relate these with the signs of permutations σ and τ ?

13

7. The case fatality rate (CFR) of a disease is the ratio of the number of deaths from the disease to the
total number of people diagnosed with the disease (“patients”), and is usually expressed as a percentage.
It has been reported that the CFR of Pandemic-20 among elderly people in Gondwanaland is 20%. One
way of treating a Pandemic-20 patient involves putting the patient on a ventilator. It has been observed
that in Gondwanaland, 60% of the elderly Pandemic-20 patients who survived the disease had been put
on a ventilator, and 10% of the elderly Pandemic-20 patients who died from the disease had been put on
a ventilator. What is the probability that an elderly Pandemic-20 patient in Gondwanaland survives the
disease if they were put on a ventilator as part of the treatment?

8. Owing to a defect in a certain machine which makes N95 masks, there is a 0.1% probability that a mask
it makes is not effective in preventing airborne viruses from being inhaled.

(a) What is the probability that the first 1000 masks that the machine produces are effective? (You may
leave your solutions as arithmetic expressions; there is no need to compute their decimal representa-
tions.)

(b) What is the probability that among the first one crore (107 ) masks that the machine produces, there
is at least one mask which is not effective?

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9. The International Chess Federation is organizing an online chess tournament in which 20 of the world’s top
players will take part. Each player will play exactly one game against each other player. The tournament
is spread over three weeks; it starts at 9 a.m. on the Monday of Week 1 and ends at 6 p.m. on the Friday
of Week 3. Note that before 9 a.m. on the Monday of Week 1 every player would have completed the
same number of games in the tournament; namely, zero. Also, after 6 p.m. on Friday in Week 3, every
player would have completed the same number of games in the tournament, namely, nineteen.
Prove that at any point in time between 9 a.m. on the Monday of Week 1 and 6 p.m. on the Friday
of Week 3, there are at least two players who would have completed the same number of games in the
tournament till that point.

10. Your class has a textbook and a final exam. Let P, Q and R be the following propositions:
• P : You get an A on the final exam.
• Q: You do every exercise in the book.
• R: You get an A in the class.
Translate the following assertions into propositional formulas using P, Q, R and the propositional connec-
tives ∧ (and ), ∨ (or ), ¬ (not) and ⇒ (implies).
(a) To get an A in the class, it is necessary for you to get an A on the final.

(b) You get an A on the final, but you don’t do every exercise in this book; nevertheless, you get an A
in this class.

15

11. Two friends Amar and Prem wish to meet at a theme party between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. (They are said
to meet if they are in the room at the same time or if one of them leaves as the other enters.) Once they
enter, they stay for exactly 20 minutes.

(a) Fill in the blanks:
i. The latest time by which any one of them can enter is ;
ii. If Amar and Prem are to meet, then their entry times can be separated by at most an interval
of minutes.
(b) What is the probability that Amar and Prem will meet? (Hint: Plot the arrival times on the x- and
y-axes.)

12. Let f be a continuous function on the closed interval [a, b] and differentiable on the open interval (a, b),
where a < b. It is known that there exists c in (a, b) such that

f (b) − f (a)
f 0 (c) = .
b−a

Determine c for f (x) = 2x3 − 3x2 + 7x − 2 on [a, b] with a = 1 and b = 6.

13. Let R be the set of all binary relations on the set {1, 2, 3}. Suppose a relation is chosen from R at random.
What is the probability that the chosen relation is symmetric?

16

14. Peppa and her friends Suzy and Emily are making 3 masks: a knight mask, a pirate mask and an elf
mask. The one wearing the knight mask must always tell the truth, the one wearing the pirate mask
must always lie and the one wearing the elf mask could sometimes lie and sometimes tell the truth. After
making three masks, one of each kind, they all wear one each and make the following statements:

Peppa : I am a wearing an elf mask.
Suzy : That is true.
Emily : I am not wearing an elf mask.

What kind of mask is each one wearing?

15. For the function f (x) = ln(x)/x, show that the maximum value of f (x) occurs when x = e. Use this to
show that xe < ex for all positive values of x.

16. Given the set of letters {a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m}, we can list out all permutations of these let-
ters in lexicographic (dictionary) order. The first three permutations in this list are abcdefghijklm,
abcdefghijkml and abcdefghijlkm and the last one is mlkjihgfedcba. What permutations would ap-
pear immediately before and after the following one in this lexicographically ordered list of permutations?

bcjameflkihgd

17

17. Consider the following code, where A is an array of integers of size size(A) with values A[0] to A[size(A)-1],
and reverse(A,i,j) reverses the segment A[i] to A[j] if i <= j and has no effect otherwise. For in-
stance, if A = [0,1,2,3,4,5], then reverse(A,2,4) would modify A to [0,1,4,3,2,5].

def mystery(A){
for j in [0,1,..,size(A)-1] {
p = j;
for i in [j,j+1,..,size(A)-1] {
if A[i] > A[p] {
p = i;
}
reverse(A,j,p);
}
}
}

(a) What is the effect of this code on an input array A?

(b) Suppose size(A) is 1000. How many times is the test A[i] > A[p] executed?

18. Eight students are to be seated around a circular table in a circular room. Two seatings are regarded as
defining the same arrangement if each student has the same student on his or her right in both seatings:
it does not matter which way they face. How many arrangements of these 8 students are there with 2
chosen students, say student A and student B, always sitting together?

18

19. Let f be a continuous bijection from closed unit interval [0, 1] onto itself. (Recall the Intermediate Value
Theorem: let f be a real valued continuous function on an interval [a, b]. Let c, d ∈ [a, b] be such that
f (c) < f (d) and let α ∈ (f (c), f (d)) be an intermediate value. Then there exists y ∈ [a, b] such that
f (y) = α.)

(i) Show that f (0) equals 0 or 1.

(ii) Show that f (1) equals 0 or 1.

(iii) Show that f admits a fixed point.

(iv) Give an example of such a function wherein the fixed point is unique and an example of a function
with more than one fixed point.

19

20. A multi-national conglomerate sells soap products for five different market segments, namely (i) Women,
(ii) Men, (iii) Kids, (iv) Sports, and (v) Luxury. The sales of these five segments (in lakh number of
packs) during 2012 and 2017 are shown in the following figure.

(a) By what percentage were the sales of the Women segment in 2017 more than the sales of the Men
segment in 2017?

(b) During the period 2012-2017, which segment experienced the minimum rate of increase in sales?

20