This post contains Indian Statistical Institute, ISI Entrance 2020 Problems and Solutions. Try them out.
This is a work in progress.
Subjective Paper - ISI Entrance 2020 Problems and Solutions
Objective Paper - ISI Entrance 2020 Problems and Solutions
Problem 1
The number of subsets of ${1,2,3, \ldots, 10}$ having an odd number of elements is
(A) $1024$ (B) $512$ (C) $256 $ (D)$ 50$
Problem 2
For the function on the real line $\mathbb{R}$ given by $f(x)=|x|+|x+1|+e^{x}$, which of the following is true?
(A) It is differentiable everywhere.
(B) It is differentiable everywhere except at $x=0$ and $x=-1$
(C) It is differentiable everywhere except at $x=1 / 2$
(D) It is differentiable everywhere except at $x=-1 / 2$
Problem 3
If $f, g$ are real-valued differentiable functions on the real line $\mathbb{R}$ such that $f(g(x))=x$ and $f^{\prime}(x)=1+(f(x))^{2},$ then $g^{\prime}(x)$ equals
(A) $\frac{1}{1+x^{2}}$ (B) $1+x^{2}$ (C) $\frac{1}{1+x^{4}}$ (D) $1+x^{4}$
Problem 4
The number of real solutions of $e^{x}=\sin (x)$ is
(A) $0$ (B) $1$ (C) $2$ (D) infinite.
Problem 5
What is the limit of $\sum_{k=1}^{n} \frac{e^{-k / n}}{n}$ as $n$ tends to $\infty ?$
(A) The limit does not exist. (B) $\infty$ (C) $1-e^{-1}$ (D) $e^{-0.5}$
Problem 6
A group of 64 players in a chess tournament needs to be divided into 32 groups of 2 players each. In how many ways can this be done?
(A) $\frac{64 !}{32 ! 2^{32}}$ (B) $64 \choose 2$ $62 \choose 2$ $ \ldots$ $4 \choose 2$$2 \choose 2$(C) $\frac{64 !}{32 ! 32 !}$ (D) $\frac{64 !}{2^{64}}$
Problem 7
The integral part of $\sum_{n=2}^{9999} \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}$ equals
(A) $196$ (B) $197$ (C) $198$ (D) $199$
Problem 8
Let $a_{n}$ be the number of subsets of ${1,2, \ldots, n}$ that do not contain any two consecutive numbers. Then
(A) $a_{n}=a_{n-1}+a_{n-2}$ (B) $a_{n}=2 a_{n-1}$
(C) $a_{n}=a_{n-1}-a_{n-2}$ (D) $a_{n}=a_{n-1}+2 a_{n-2}$
Discussion and Solution
Problem 9
There are $128$ numbers $1,2, \ldots, 128$ which are arranged in a circular pattern in clockwise order. We start deleting numbers from this set in a clockwise fashion as follows. First delete the number $2,$ then skip the next available number (which is 3) and delete 4. Continue in this manner, that is, after deleting a number, skip the next available number clockwise and delete the number available after that, till only one number What is the last number left?
(A) $1$ (B) $63$ (C) $127$ (D) None of the above.
Problem 10
Let $z$ and $w$ be complex numbers lying on the circles of radii 2 and 3 respectively, with centre $(0,0) .$ If the angle between the corresponding vectors is 60 degrees, then the value of $|z+w| /|z-w|$ is:
(A) $\frac{\sqrt{19}}{\sqrt{7}}$ (B) $\frac{\sqrt{7}}{\sqrt{19}}$ (C) $\frac{\sqrt{12}}{\sqrt{7}}$ (D) $\frac{\sqrt{7}}{\sqrt{12}}$
Problem 11
Two vertices of a square lie on a circle of radius $r$ and the other two vertices lie on a tangent to this circle. Then the length of the side of the square is
(A) $\frac{3 r}{2}$ (B) $\frac{4 r}{3}$ (C) $\frac{6 r}{5}$ (D) $\frac{8 r}{5}$
Problem 12
For a real number $x,$ let $[x]$ denote the greatest integer less than or equal to $x .$ Then the number of real solutions of $|2 x-[x]|=4$ is
(A) $4$ (B) $3$ (C) $2$ (D) $1$
Problem 13
Let $f, g$ be differentiable functions on the real line $\mathbb{R}$ with $f(0)>g(0)$ Assume that the set $M={t \in \mathbb{R} \mid f(t)=g(t)}$ is non-empty and that $f^{\prime}(t) \geq g^{\prime}(t)$ for all $t \in M .$ Then which of the following is necessarily true?
(A) If $t \in M,$ then $t<0$. (B) For any $t \in M, f^{\prime}(t)>g^{\prime}(t)$
(C) For any $t \notin M, f(t)>g(t)$
(D) None of the above.
Problem 14
Consider the sequence $1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5, \ldots$ obtained by writing one $1,$ two $2$ 's, three $3$ 's and so on. What is the $2020^{\text {th }}$ term in the sequence?
(A) $62$ (B)$ 63$ (C) $64$ (D) $65$
Problem 15
Let $A=\{x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{50}\}$ and $B=\{y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{20}\}$ be two sets of real numbers. What is the total number of functions $f: A \rightarrow B$ such that $f$ is onto and $f\left(x_{1}\right) \leq f\left(x_{2}\right) \leq \cdots \leq f\left(x_{50}\right) ?$
(A) $49 \choose 19$ (B) $49 \choose 20$ (C) $50 \choose 19$ (A) $50 \choose 20$
Problem 16
The number of complex roots of the polynomial $z^{5}-z^{4}-1$ which have modulus $1$ is
(A) $0$ (B) $1$ (C) $2$ (D) more than $2$
Problem 17
The number of real roots of the polynomial
(A) $2$ (B)$3$ (C) $2023$ (D) $2025$
Problem 18
$18$. Which of the following is the sum of an infinite geometric sequence whose terms come from the set $\{1, \frac{1}{2}, \frac{1}{4}, \ldots, \frac{1}{2^{n}}, \ldots\} ?$
(A) $\frac{1}{5}$ (B) $\frac{1}{7}$ (C) $\frac{1}{9}$ (D) $\frac{1}{11}$
Problem 19
If $a, b, c$ are distinct odd natural numbers, then the number of rational roots of the polynomial $a x^{2}+b x+c$
(A) must be $0 $.
(B) must be $1$ .
(C) must be $2$ .
(D) cannot be determined from the given data.
Problem 20
Let $A, B, C$ be finite subsets of the plane such that $A \cap B, B \cap C$ and $C \cap A$ are all empty. Let $S=A \cup B \cup C$. Assume that no three points of $S$ are collinear and also assume that each of $A, B$ and $C$ has at least 3 points. Which of the following statements is always true?
(A) There exists a triangle having a vertex from each of $A, B, C$ that does not contain any point of $S$ in its interior.
(B) Any triangle having a vertex from each of $A, B, C$ must contain a point of $S$ in its interior.
(C) There exists a triangle having a vertex from each of $A, B, C$ that contains all the remaining points of $S$ in its interior.
(D) There exist 2 triangles, both having a vertex from each of $A, B, C$ such that the two triangles do not intersect.
Problem 21
Shubhaangi thinks she may be allergic to Bengal gram and takes a test that is known to give the following results:
(A) $1 / 9$
(B) $6 / 55$
(C) $1 / 11$
(D) cannot be determined from the given data.
Problem 22
If $\sin \left(\tan ^{-1}(x)\right)=\cot \left(\sin ^{-1}\left(\sqrt{\frac{13}{17}}\right)\right)$ then $x$ is
(A) $\frac{4}{17}$
(B) $ \frac{2}{3}$
(C) $\sqrt{\frac{17^{2}-13^{2}}{17^{2}+13^{2}}}$
(D) $\sqrt{\frac{17^{2}-13^{2}}{17 \times 13}}$
Problem 23
If the word PERMUTE is permuted in all possible ways and the different resulting words are written down in alphabetical order (also known as dictionary order $)$, irrespective of whether the word has meaning or not, then the $720^{\text {th }}$ word would be:
(A) EEMPRTU (B) EUTRPME (C) UTRPMEE (D) MEET-PUR.
Problem 24
The points (4,7,-1),(1,2,-1),(-1,-2,-1) and (2,3,-1) in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ are the vertices of a
(A) rectangle which is not a square.
(B) rhombus.
(C) parallelogram which is not a rectangle.
(D) trapezium which is not a parallelogram.
Problem 25
Let $f(x), g(x)$ be functions on the real line $\mathbb{R}$ such that both $f(x)+g(x)$ and $f(x) g(x)$ are differentiable. Which of the following is FALSE?
(A) $f(x)^{2}+g(x)^{2}$ is necessarily differentiable.
(B) $f(x)$ is differentiable if and only if $g(x)$ is differentiable.
(C) $f(x)$ and $g(x)$ are necessarily continuous.
(D) If $f(x)>g(x)$ for all $x \in \mathbb{R},$ then $f(x)$ is differentiable.
Problem 26
Let $S$ be the set consisting of all those real numbers that can be written as $p-2 a$ where $p$ and $a$ are the perimeter and area of a right-angled triangle having base length 1 . Then $S$ is
(A)$(2, \infty)$
(B) $(1, \infty)$
(C) $(0, \infty)$
(D) the real line $\mathbb{R}$.
Problem 27
Let $S={1,2, \ldots, n} .$ For any non-empty subset $A$ of $S$, let l(a) denote the largest number in $A .$ If $f(n)=\sum_{A \subseteq S} l(A),$ that is, $f(n)$ is the sum of the numbers $l(A)$ while $A$ ranges over all the nonempty subsets of $S$, then $f(n)$ is
( A )$ 2^{n}(n+1)$
(B) $2^{n}(n+1)-1$
( C) $2^{n}(n-1)$
(D) $2^{n}(n-1)+1$
Problem 28
The area of the region in the plane $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ given by points $(x, y)$ satisfying $|y| \leq 1$ and $x^{2}+y^{2} \leq 2$ is
(A) $\pi+1$
(B) $2 \pi-2$
(G) $\pi+2$
(D) $2 \pi-1$
Problem 29
Let $n$ be a positive integer and $t \in(0,1) .$ Then $\sum_{r=0} r\left(
(A) $n t$
(B)$(n-1)(1-t)$
(C) $n t+(n-1)(1-t)$
(D) $\left(n^{2}-2 n+2\right) t$
Problem 30
For any real number $x,$ let $[x]$ be the greatest integer $m$ such that $m \leq x$ Then the number of points of discontinuity of the function $g(x)=\left[x^{2}-2\right]$ on the interval$ (-3,3)$ is
(A) $5$
(B) $9$
(C) $13$
(D) $16$
Objective Paper - Answer Key
(Created by students). Please suggest changes in the comment section.
| 1. B | 2. B | 3. A | 4. D | 5. C |
| 6. A | 7. B | 8. A | 9. A | 10. A |
| 11. D | 12. A | 13. C | 14. C | 15. A |
| 16. C | 17. B | 18. B | 19. A | 20. A |
| 21. B | 22. B | 23. B | 24. C | 25. D |
| 26. A | 27. D | 28. C | 29. A | 30. D |
Some useful links

In 2025, 8 students from Cheenta Academy cracked the prestigious Regional Math Olympiad. In this post, we will share some of their success stories and learning strategies. The Regional Mathematics Olympiad (RMO) and the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (INMO) are two most important mathematics contests in India.These two contests are for the students who are […]

Cheenta Academy proudly celebrates the success of 27 current and former students who qualified for the Indian Olympiad Qualifier in Mathematics (IOQM) 2025, advancing to the next stage — RMO. This accomplishment highlights their perseverance and Cheenta’s ongoing mission to nurture mathematical excellence and research-oriented learning.

Cheenta students shine at the Purple Comet Math Meet 2025 organized by Titu Andreescu and Jonathan Kanewith top national and global ranks.

Celebrate the success of Cheenta students in the Stanford Math Tournament. The Unified Vectors team achieved Top 20 in the Team Round.
HELLO SIR I THINK 13 SHOULD BE D.NONE.
Take f(x)=x+1 and g(x)= x^2
Pls check that for ur assumed function the condition of f'(t)>=g'(t) is not satisfied for all t belonging to m
What will be the cut off for B.math 2020
25 -C.........take a case f(X)={1 for x>=0, and -1 for x<0 g(x)=-f(x)
I think you are right. I wrongly chose option D.
Many answers given by you are incorrect. For example exp(x) is always greater than x so in question 4. exp(x)=sin(x) has no solution. So option A is true. Also all options of question 5 are incorrect. The limit tends to 1 which is not given in any option
Many answers given by you are incorrect. For example exp(x) is always greater than sin(x) so in question 4. exp(x)=sin(x) has no solution. So option A is true. Also all options of question 5 are incorrect. The limit tends to 1 which is not given in any option
Great content for ISI .
MUST BE FOLLOWED BY EVERY ISI ASPIRANT.