There are 48=65,5364^8=65{,}53648=65,536 different possible sequences of 8 DNA bases.

Why the number is 484^848

DNA sequences use four possible bases at each position: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G).

For an 8‑base sequence, each of the 8 positions can independently be any of these 4 bases, so the total number of sequences is 4×4×4×4×4×4×4×4=48=65,5364\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4=4^8=65{,}5364×4×4×4×4×4×4×4=48=65,536.

Quick analogy

  • Think of an 8‑letter “word” where each letter can only be A, C, G, or T.
  • Every slot has 4 choices and there are 8 slots, so the count grows exponentially as 484^848.

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