If n balls are thrown into k bins, what is the probability that every bin gets at least one ball?

Solution 1:

What is the chance that all $k$ bins are occupied?

For $1\leq i\leq k$, define $A_i$ to be the event that the $i$th bin stays empty. These are exchangeable events with $P(A_1\cdots A_j)=(1-{j\over k})^n$ and so by inclusion-exclusion, the probability that there are no empty bins is $$P(X=0)=\sum_{j=0}^k (-1)^j {k\choose j}\left(1-{j\over k}\right)^n.$$

Stirling numbers of the second kind can be used to give an alternative solution to the occupancy problem. We can fill all $k$ bins as follows: partition the balls $\{1,2,\dots, n\}$ into $k$ non-empty sets, then assign the bin values $1,2,\dots, k$ to these sets. There are ${n\brace k}$ partitions, and for each partition $k!$ ways to assign the bin values. Thus, $$P(X=0)={{n\brace k}\,k!\over k^n}.$$