[Math] Finding the probability of getting no successes in a Geometric Distribution

probabilitystatistics

In Geometric Distribution, I am getting the probability for doing $x$ number of trials and get my first success with each trial of probability $p$.

So suppose I want to find what's the probability of doing 30 trials and get my first success on the 30th trial, I do this:
$$
P(X=30)=(1-p)^{30-1}p$$

Now, then if I want to find the probability for not getting a single success at all even after doing $30$ trials on this same distribution, what should I do? The parameters of the Geometric Distribution doesn't seem to let me find this.

I thought of using like $1$ minus the CDF of 30 trials of the geometric distribution but I am not sure if it would be accurate.

Best Answer

How did you arrive at $P(X=30)=(1-p)^{30-1}p$? Usually this is derived by arguing that to have the first success in the $30$-th trial you need to have $29$ trials without success and then one trial with success, which makes $(1-p)^{29}p$. But that argument already contains the answer to your question, namely, since the probability of not getting a success in one trial is $1-p$, the probability of not getting a success in $29$ trials is $(1-p)^{29}$, and analogously the probability of not getting a success in $30$ trials is $(1-p)^{30}$. So you took the second step before the first.

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