Subsets of equal size, where each element appears an equal number of times Suppose I have a set of N unique elements, let's say 12:
{A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L}
I would like to construct unique subsets of size X (let's say 3), such that every element in N appears in a subset exactly Y number of times. Order does not matter -- {A, B, C} is the same as {C, B, A}.


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*How would I go about finding the minimum number of subsets required for a given X, Y, and N, or whether such an arrangement is even possible? (Obviously there are cases when it would not be possible -- if X = 1 then Y cannot be greater than 1, etc.)

*Relatedly: How would I go about finding the minimum number of subsets that are as dissimilar as possible? So for instance, if we choose {A, B, C}, then {A, B, D}, {A, B, E}, etc. should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

*Finally: Given an N, and given X>1 and Y>1, how would I go about choosing X and Y such that the minimum is reasonably small? By "reasonably" here I don't necessarily mean a mathematical definition but a practical one.
I've read about the set covering problem and related problems, but none seem to be exactly what I am looking for. 
(This isn't homework. It's for a design problem: I have N characters, and I want to come up with traits that apply to X number of characters, such that every character is represented equally with as few traits as possible. So #2 exists to make things the most interesting, and #3 exists so I don't have to write content for hundreds of traits.)
 A: This answer provides a general framework for your problem and considers its partial cases. 
A family $\mathcal D$ of subsets of a given base set of size $n$ consisting of subsets of size $x$ such that every element of the base set is contained in exactly $y$ subsets of $\mathcal D$ we shall call a $(n,x,y)$-design. The number $s=|\mathcal D|$ of members of an $(n,x,y)$-design is uniquely defined by an equality $ny=sx$, which counts the number of total occurrences of elements of the base in members of $\mathcal D$. Also $|\mathcal D|$ is at most the number ${n\choose x}$ of all subsets of of the base set of size $x$. 
A natural dissimilarity measure $\Delta$ of a design $\mathcal D$ can be based on a symmetric difference $A\Delta B=(A\setminus B)\cup (B\setminus A)$ of sets $A$ and $B$. Namely, put $$\Delta(\mathcal D)=\frac 12\min\{| A\Delta B |: A,B\in\mathcal D,\, A\ne B\}.$$ Clearly, $1\le \Delta(\mathcal D)\le x$ for each $(n,x,y)$-design $\mathcal D$.
Assume that $\Delta(\mathcal D)\ge d$. There are ${n\choose x-d+1}$ different subsets of the base set of size $x-d+1$. Ot the other hand, each member of $\mathcal D$ has  ${x\choose x-d+1}$ such subsets, and none of these subsets can belong to distinct members $A$, $B$ of $\mathcal D$, because otherwise $\Delta(A, B)<d$. This gives us an inequality $s{x\choose x-d+1}\le {n\choose x-d+1}$. It becames an equality iff $\mathcal D $ is a Steiner system $S(x-d+1,x,n)$.    
There are known designs $\mathcal D$ for some particular cases. 
An $(n,x,1)$-design exists iff $x$ is a divisor of $n$. Such designs $\mathcal D$ are exactly partitions of the base set into subsets of size $x$ and $\Delta(\mathcal D)=2x$ for each such $\mathcal D$.
A family $\mathcal D$ of all subsets of size $x$ of the base set is $(n,x,{n-1\choose x-1})$-design and $\Delta(\mathcal D)=1$.
Maybe later I’ll expand this answer a bit providing more designs.  
