UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

The hexadecimal system has base 16, and 16 equals 2⁴. This means each hex digit corresponds exactly to a group of four bits. This makes hexadecimal a convenient shorthand for binary because each nibble maps to one hex digit.

Option A:
Option A correctly uses the identity 16 = 2⁴ to justify the four-bit groupings. It explains why 4-bit nibbles are natural units when representing binary values in hexadecimal form.

Option B:
Option B, 3, is associated with the octal system, where 8 = 2³ and each digit maps to three bits. It does not apply to base 16.

Option C:
Option C, 2, would yield only four combinations, insufficient to represent 16 different hex symbols (0–9 and A–F).

Option D:
Option D, 8, overestimates the bits per hex digit and would allow 256 combinations, which is far beyond the 16 needed.