One byte consists of how many bits, and what are the common units used for text file size?

• A. 8 bits per byte; text files are often measured in kilobytes (KB) or megabytes (MB).
• B. 7 bits per byte; text files are measured in kilobytes (KB).
• C. 8 bits per byte; text files are measured in gigabytes (GB).
• D. 16 bits per byte; text files are measured in kilobytes (KB).

Answer: (A)

A byte is 8 bits, which is the standard size for storing a single character in common text encodings like ASCII and UTF-8. Because text files are made up of these bytes, their size is described using larger byte-based units. The most common units for text file sizes are kilobytes and megabytes, where a kilobyte is about a thousand bytes (technically 1024) and a megabyte is about a thousand kilobytes (technically 1024 KB). This fits typical text files well, which often range from a few kilobytes up to megabytes, while gigabytes are used for much larger data. The other options misstate how many bits are in a byte or mix in inappropriate scales.