What Are Exponents?

An exponent tells you how many times to multiply a number by itself. When you write $2^5$, you're saying "multiply 2 by itself 5 times."

So $2^5 = 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2 = 32$. The base is $2$, and the exponent is $5$.

This notation is compact and powerful. Instead of writing multiplication chains, you write one expression. In algorithms, you'll see exponents when analyzing loops that double each iteration or when counting subsets.