independent

This book is a great compilation that covers quite a bit of puzzles. What I like about these puzzles are that they are all tractable and don't require too much advanced mathematics to solve.





This is a book on algorithms, some of them are probabilistic. But the book is a must have for students, job candidates even full time engineers & data scientists





















Good read. Overall Poker/Blackjack type card games are a good way to get introduced to probability theory





Easily the most expensive book out there. So if the item above piques your interest and you want to go pro, go for it.





Well written and easy to read mathematics. For the Poker beginner.









An excellent resource (students/engineers/entrepreneurs) if you are looking for some code that you can take and implement directly on the job.





Understanding Probability: Chance Rules in Everyday Life A bit pricy when compared to the first one, but I like the look and feel of the text used. It is simple to read and understand which is vital especially if you are trying to get into the subject





Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Third Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) This one is a must have if you want to learn machine learning. The book is beautifully written and ideal for the engineer/student who doesn't want to get too much into the details of a machine learned approach but wants a working knowledge of it. There are some great examples and test data in the text book too.





This is a good book if you are new to statistics & probability while simultaneously getting started with a programming language. The book supports R and is written in a casual humorous way making it an easy read. Great for beginners. Some of the data on the companion website could be missing.

Q: You are in a game with a bankroll of 13 gold coins. The game involves a 13 pots lined up. There is a 96% chance that one of the pots has 22 gold coins in it. You get to inspect a pot by paying 1 gold coin. The game organizer tells you that there is a 90% chance that the very first pot has the gold coins in it. You pay 1 gold coin to inspect the first pot and you find there is no gold in it. Should you continue to play?A: This is good example of a puzzle where at first blush it appears that there is no merit in continuing. It almost gives the impression that "most" of your probability of winning is lost right from the get go as the first pot, which was known to have a 90% chance of having the 13 gold coins does not contain gold.Let us assume that the probability of winning is \(x\) downstream of the first pot (that is pots 2 through 13). Next, lets estimate the probability of not winning at all in this game. The probability of not winning at the first pot is \(1 - 0.9 = 0.1\) and that of not winning on any of the remaining pots is \( 1 - x\). The net probability we know to be \( 1 - 0.96 = 0.04\). Thus we can state this as$$ 0.1 \times ( 1 - x ) = 0.04 $$Solving for \( x \) yields$$x = 60\%$$You are left with 12 gold coins. Your expected pay off is \( 0.6 \times 22 = 13.2\) coins, so you must play.As an aside, notice that the probability of a win isof the number of pots that are lined up. But the expected pay off will vary.Some must buy books on ProbabilityA new entrant and seems promising