How many ways could this be done?

Question

If we wanted to arrange “n” books on a bookshelf that can hold “n” books from “n” boxes that contain large amounts text books items on a bookshelf, how many wayS could this be done 

Answer 1

It sounds to me as if there are (possibly) multiple boxes, each containing multiple books, altogether.

"n" was over-used; we do not know how many BOOKS there are. Call # of books "b".

 

Arrangements of books are considered as an"order matters" situation--permutations, in other words.

A difficulty arises if in this large mass of books there are identical duplicates. The problem statement ignores this nuance, so let's not go there!

 

Thus clarified, there can be _bP_n different arrangements on the shelf.

 

Whoever is writing these questions, Lindsey, is not doing a very good job, in my opinion.  Let me guess: is this from a CommonCore environment?