Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-probability-statistics-and-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/b/b2/a/solution

A composition series is a finite chain in which each inclusion is proper, each subgroup is normal in the next, and every quotient is a nontrivial simple group. These quotients are the composition factors.
For a finite group, use induction on its order. The trivial group has the empty series. Otherwise choose a maximal proper normal subgroup ; such a subgroup exists because there are finitely many subgroups and is proper. The correspondence theorem says normal subgroups of correspond to normal subgroups of containing , so maximality makes simple. Inductively construct a composition series of the smaller group and append . This proves existence.
A nonabelian example with abelian factors is
Both factors are simple because their orders are prime.

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