Generally with these types of Questions that give a Restriction that "2 People can NOT be together" on a team or group, it is better to Find the Total No. of Ways to Choose with NO RESTRICTION ---- and then SUBTRACT out the No. of Ways to Form the Group VIOLATING the RESTRICTION (in which the 2 People are actually together)
For Instance, All the Completely Exhaustive Ways of Making a Team of 5 out of 11 People are the following:
Total No. of Ways to make a Team of 5 out of 11 =
(No. of Ways where P + VP TOGETHER)
+
(No. of Ways P on Team, VP NOT on Team)
+
(No. of Ways VP on team, P NOT on Team)
+
(No. of Ways NEITHER VP nor P on team)
The question says that we want to find the No. of Ways in which P and VP are "NOT TOGETHER" --- this includes the LAST 3 that are ADDED in the List Above.
Rather than Finding all the Different Ways for Each of those LAST 3 Scenarios, it's easier to just SUBTRACT Over the (No. of Ways where P and VP ARE TOGETHER) from the Total Possible Ways when there is NO Restriction.
This will give us the Answer for those LAST 3 Scenarios without having to do as much Calculation.
(Total No. of Ways NO RESTRICTION) - (No. of Ways where P and VP TOGETHER)
= All the Ways in which we can have a team where P and VP are SEPARATED
1st) Total No. of Ways NO RESTRICTION
11 Distinct people in Available Pool
Can Select Any 5
"11 choose 5" = 462 Ways to create a Team of ANY 5 People
-Subtract-
2nd) No. of Ways in which P + VP are TOGETHER (Violating Constraint)
We 1st "Fix" P and VP Together on every different possible Team of 5 --- this has 2 Effects:
-a- We now only have to Select 3 People since every team will have P + VP on it
-b- The Available "Pool" of people from which we can select is reduced by -2 ---- 9 People Remain
"9 Choose 3" = 84 Ways to create a Team with P + VP always Selected Together
462 - 84 = 378
Answer: 378 Ways to choose a Team of 5 where P and VP are SEPERATED