Carla selects 5 fruit-flavored candies from a bowl containing 6 apple, 5 banana and 4 cherry candies. How many possible combinations of candies can Carla select?
You are essentially choosing three items from six
$\dbinom{6}{3} = \frac{6 \cdot 5 \cdot 4}{3 \cdot 2 \cdot 1} = \boxed{20}$
The question easy by
includes apple:
1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 15
only banana: 1
only banana + cherry: 4
=> 15+1+4=20