Question

What is the number of valence electrons in nitrogen?

Answer 1

The thing to remember about main-group elements is that the group number gives you the element's number of valence electrons.

In your case, nitrogen, N, is located in group 15, which means that it has 5 valence electrons.

As you know, nitrogen exists as diatomic molecules, N2. Each nitrogen molecule consists of two atoms of nitrogen that are bonded by a triple covalent bond.

This is a direct consequence of the fact that each nitrogen atom has 5 valence electrons. Each atom can thus complete its octet by sharing three electrons.