Probabilizing parking functions (Q2360728)

Let us imagine that there are \(n\) cars and each has a preferred spot, the car \(i\) wants \(\pi_i\), \(1\leq i\leq n\), with \(1\leq\pi_i\leq n\). We have the following definition: A parking function is a sequence \(\pi=(\pi_1, \pi_2,\dots,\pi_n)\) with \(1\leq\pi_i\leq n\) so that all cars can park. Following a classical tradition, the author asks the following questions: {\parindent=0.6cm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] What is the chance that \(\pi_i=j\)? \item[(2)] What is the distribution of the sum \(\sum_j \pi_j\)? \end{itemize}} Finally, the last section discusses open problems.