Diploid cells have chromosomes that exist in pairs, indicating they contain how many chromosome sets?

• A. One
• B. Two
• C. Three
• D. Four

Answer: (B)

Diploid cells carry two complete chromosome sets, one set from each parent. This pairing creates homologous chromosomes, so each gene is present in two copies in the cell. For humans, that means 46 chromosomes organized as 23 pairs. If a cell has only one set, it’s haploid; more than two sets would be triploid or tetraploid, which isn’t characteristic of diploid somatic cells. So diploid cells contain two chromosome sets.