2026-03-20

Problem — 2026-03-20

Medium

Mediumprobability

A fair coin is flipped repeatedly. The game ends when either HHHH or THTH appears as the last two flips. What is the probability that HHHH appears before THTH?

Express as a fraction

Show solution
Once a tails appears, the next heads will complete THTH before HHHH can form. So HHHH can only win if the first two flips are both heads. The probability is 1212=14\frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{1}{2} = \frac{1}{4}.