what are the building blocks of nucleic acids

The building blocks of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are nucleotides.

Quick Scoop: Core idea

Nucleic acids are long chains made by linking many nucleotides together, so a nucleotide is to DNA/RNA what a single brick is to a wall.

Each nucleotide has three main parts:

• A nitrogenous base (A, T, G, C in DNA; A, U, G, C in RNA)
• A 5‑carbon sugar (deoxyribose in DNA, ribose in RNA)
• One or more phosphate groups

When nucleotides join, their sugars and phosphates form a repeating “sugar‑phosphate backbone,” with the bases sticking out like letters in a code that stores genetic information.

So if you’re ever asked “what are the building blocks of nucleic acids?”, the precise answer is: nucleotides made of a base, a sugar, and a phosphate group.

TL;DR: Nucleic acids are polymers, and their monomers—their building blocks—are nucleotides (base + sugar + phosphate).

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.