One kilobyte (KB) is exactly equal to how many bytes?

The correct answer is B, 1024. Storage units in computing grow in powers of two rather than powers of ten, because addresses are binary. One kilobyte is 2 raised to the power 10 bytes, which equals 1024 bytes. The same step of 1024 continues upward: 1024 kilobytes make one megabyte, 1024 megabytes make one gigabyte and 1024 gigabytes make one terabyte. Option A is wrong because 1000 bytes is the decimal kilobyte used by disc manufacturers in advertising, and it is exactly the trap this question sets. Option C is wrong because 2048 bytes is two kilobytes. Option D is wrong because 512 bytes is half a kilobyte, a figure students recall from the classic disc sector size. In competitive examinations always take one kilobyte as 1024 bytes unless the question itself says otherwise.