What is the simplest form of carbohydrate?

The simplest form of carbohydrate is monosaccharides. These are the basic building blocks of carbohydrates and consist of single sugar molecules. Common examples of monosaccharides include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Because they contain only one unit of sugar, they cannot be hydrolyzed into simpler sugar molecules, making them the most fundamental type of carbohydrate.

In contrast, polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates made up of long chains of monosaccharide units linked together. Disaccharides consist of two monosaccharides bonded together, such as sucrose (glucose + fructose) or lactose (glucose + galactose). Oligosaccharides are slightly more complex than disaccharides, composed of a few (typically 3 to 10) monosaccharides bonded together. Understanding these distinctions helps clarify why monosaccharides represent the simplest form of carbohydrates.