Question

In how many different ways can you answer a multiple choice test that has 5 questions and 3 choices for each answer?

Answer 1

125
243

Answer 2

Each of the 3 possible answers to the first question can be combined with any of the 3 possible answers to the second question. Therefore the number of ways of answering the first two questions = 3 * 3 = 9. Each of the 3 possible answers to the third question can be combined with any of the 9 possible ways of answering the first two questions. Therefore the number of ways of answering the first three questions = 3 * 3 * 3 = 27.
Carrying on the reasoning as above, the number of ways of answering the five questions = 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 =?