| INTRODUCTION | |
| You and a friend are playing the classic board game of snakes and ladders. Both players begin on the | |
| start square and take turns rolling a standard 6-sided die. You move forward the number of places rolled | |
| on the die. If you land on a square that is at the very bottom of a ladder, you move to the top of the ladder. | |
| If you land on a snake head, you slide down to the bottom of the snake. The winner is the first player to | |
| the finish square, an exact roll is not required to finish. | |
| Being a keen Excel user, you decide to simulate the game. Using your preferred method (e.g. a data | |
| table, VBA, or any other means within Excel) simulate exactly 5,000 games of snakes and ladders, and | |
| then answer the following questions. | |
| Do not simulate more than 5,000 games at once, as this could increase your workbook size too much. | |
| However be sure to run your 5,000 game simulation a few times to make sure your first result was not an | |
| outlier. | |
| For the questions that follow: | |
| ‘Player 1’ refers to the player who moves first and ‘Player 2’ the player who moves second. | |
| You may wish to run your simulation several times to ensure your results are consistent. | |
| Your answers may not match exactly those provided, given the nature of simulation and the | |
| rounding of the provided answers. Select the closest answer. | |
| THE BOARD | |
| You use the board (as shown in the image) to play the game. | |
| For clarity, details of the board are as follows: | |
| The ‘Start’ square is numbered 0, and the ‘Finish’ square is numbered 34. | |
| The board contains the following ladders: | |
| i) 1 → 12 | |
| ii) 5 → 16 | |
| iii) 11 → 22 | |
| iv) 15 → 23 | |
| v) 20 → 31 | |
| The board contains the following snakes: | |
| i) 7 → 4 | |
| ii) 10 → 2 | |
| iii) 21 → 13 | |
| iv) 24 → 6 | |
| v) 33 → 19 | |