Suppose that G is a finite solvable group. Let $t=n_c(G)$ denote the number of orders of nonnormal subgroups of G. We bound the derived length $dl(G)$ in terms of $n_c(G)$. If G is a finite p-group, we show that $|G'|\leq p^{2t+1}$ and $dl(G)\leq \lceil \log _2(2t+3)\rceil $. If G is a finite solvable nonnilpotent group, we prove that the sum of the powers of the prime divisors of $|G'|$ is less than t and that $dl(G)\leq \lfloor 2(t+1)/3\rfloor +1$.

Isaacs and Seitz conjectured that the derived length of a finite solvable group $G$ is bounded by the cardinality of the set of all irreducible character degrees of $G$. We prove that the conjecture holds for $G$ if the degrees of nonlinear monolithic characters of $G$ having the same kernels are distinct. Also, we show that the conjecture is true when $G$ has at most three nonlinear monolithic characters. We give some sufficient conditions for the inequality related to monolithic characters or real-valued irreducible characters of $G$ when the commutator subgroup of $G$ is supersolvable.

Suppose that a finite group G admits an automorphism of order 2n such that the fixed-point subgroup of the involution is nilpotent of class c. Let m = ) be the number of fixed points of . It is proved that G has a characteristic soluble subgroup of derived length bounded in terms of n, c whose index is bounded in terms of m, n, c. A similar result is also proved for Lie rings.

A finite dinilpotent group G is one that can be written as the product of two finite nilpotent groups, A and B say. A finite dinilpotent group is always soluble. If A is abelian and B is metabelian, with |A| and|B| coprime, we show that a bound on the derived length given by Kazarin can be improved. We show that G has derived length at most 3 unless G contains a section with a well defined structure: in particular if G is of odd order, G has derived length at most 3.