Starch is an example of which category of carbohydrates?

• A. Monosaccharide
• B. Disaccharide
• C. Polysaccharide
• D. Oligosaccharide

Answer: (C)

Carbohydrates are categorized by how many sugar units they contain. A monosaccharide is a single sugar, a disaccharide is two sugars, and an oligosaccharide has a small number of sugars. Starch is made up of many glucose units linked together into long, sometimes branched chains, forming a polymer. That large, multi-unit structure makes it a polysaccharide. In plants, starch serves as a storage form of glucose, which fits the idea of a complex, long-chain carbohydrate rather than a simple sugar.