Question

How many ways can four finalist be selected from 50 contestants?

Answer 1

Does it matter in what order a particular finalist is selected? Is being selected first just as good as being the last selected finalist?

Answer 2

the order does not matter

Answer 3

Each of the four selected has the same status, that is each is a finalist. Therefore the order of selection does not matter. So we need to find how many combinations of four finalists can be selected from 50 contestants.
Number of ways = 50C4
\[50C4=\frac{50!}{4!(50-4)!}\]