The Chase brainteaser leaves Paul Sinha stumped – can YOU solve it?

Chaser Paul Sinha and a contestant were both left dumbfounded by a mind-bending maths question on The Chase – but can you beat the odds and solve it? 

The British quiz show, hosted by Bradley Walsh, 65, features four contestants who have to work as a team to answer general knowledge questions. 

They must defeat the Chaser, a ruthless quiz genius, to win the cash prize, with the maximum amount that can be won for a single player being £100,000. 

And during Wednesday’s instalment of the ITV show, RAF pilot Andrew, 32, from Harrogate, was in the hot seat. 

However, he and The Sinnerman were both stumped by a difficult brainteaser known as the ‘Birthday Paradox’. 

During the segment, Bradley posed the question: ‘How many people need to be in a room to give a 99.9% chance that two of them share the same birthday?’ 

The multiple choice options were 25, 50, or 75 – but can you guess the answer? 

Andrew chose the number 25, explaining: ‘I think it’s one of those weird maths (questions), it doesn’t sound very distinctive – but it’s an unusual number, so I went for the low.’ 

But even Chaser Sinnerman was caught off guard, and also answered with the number 25. 

However, they both got the question wrong as the answer was, in fact, 75, and a visibly shocked Bradley exclaimed: ‘NOO!’

Paul replied: ‘I knew it was low, so went for the lowest. I’d heard the fact before, but clearly not well enough!’ 

The mind-blowing question left viewers reeling, with several flocking to social media, admitting they still don’t understand the question. 

One wrote: ‘Still don’t understand the maths question.’; ‘Is this The 1% Club or The Chase lol? that maths question was so hard!’; ‘Anyone else feel thick at that maths one?’ 

Earlier in the episode, Andrew performed strongly in the cashbuilder round, answering eight questions correctly before joining fellow contestant Wendy from Manchester in the final Chase. 

Wendy had already banked £2,000 after opting for the lower offer and sailing through the round. 

However, despite a good performance, Andrew’s stumbling on the difficult math question nearly cost him the round. 

Fortunately, with the Chaser making the same mistake as him, he was granted a second chance. 

The Birthday Paradox states that in a random group of 23 people, there’s a 50-50 chance two will share the same birthday. 

However, for that likelihood to hit 99.9%, the number jumps dramatically to 75.

The maths behind the question involves comparing all possible birthday pairings, resulting in hundreds of combinations, which is almost impossible for contestants to guess. 

Before the final Chase, Paul summed it up, saying: ‘What’s interesting about this team is because of their terrible start (in losing two contestants), I don’t think many of the viewers will have noticed how well they played in their cash builders – because they got 25 questions right. 

‘Super team by definition. I’ve managed to halve them, and because I’ve managed to halve them, I’ve made myself favourite for the final Chase – but only slightly.’ 

The Chase airs on weeknights at 5pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.