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GATE DA 2025 Q41: Floor of an exponential random variable is geometric

Question

For x∈Rx \in \mathbb{R}, the floor function is denoted by f(x)=⌊x⌋f(x) = \lfloor x \rfloor and defined as follows

⌊x⌋=k,k≤x<k+1,\lfloor x \rfloor = k, \quad k \le x < k + 1,

where kk is an integer. Let Y=⌊X⌋Y = \lfloor X \rfloor, where XX is an exponentially distributed random variable with mean 1ln⁡10\dfrac{1}{\ln 10}, where ln⁡\ln denotes natural logarithm. For any positive integer ℓ\ell, one can write the probability of the event Y=ℓY = \ell as follows

P(Y=ℓ)=qℓ(1−q)P(Y = \ell) = q^{\ell}(1 - q)

The value of qq is

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Answer: A (official GATE 2025 final answer key)

Concept used: Discretising an exponential distribution gives a geometric distribution.

First step: The rate is λ=ln⁡10\lambda = \ln 10. Write P(Y=ℓ)=P(ℓ≤X<ℓ+1)=e−λℓ−e−λ(ℓ+1)=(e−λ)ℓ(1−e−λ)P(Y = \ell) = P(\ell \le X < \ell + 1) = e^{-\lambda \ell} - e^{-\lambda(\ell + 1)} = (e^{-\lambda})^{\ell}(1 - e^{-\lambda}).

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Source: official GATE 2025 DA question paper and final answer key, organised by IIT Roorkee. Question paper · Answer key