The final hydrolytic products of polysaccharides are monosaccharides.

• A. Polysaccharides
• B. Oligosaccharides
• C. Disaccharides
• D. Monosaccharides

Answer: (D)

Polysaccharides are long chains of sugar units held together by glycosidic bonds, and hydrolysis adds water to cleave those bonds. When hydrolysis goes to completion, every glycosidic linkage is broken, releasing individual sugar units called monosaccharides. That’s why the final hydrolytic products are monosaccharides, such as glucose, galactose, and fructose. If hydrolysis stops early, you might see intermediate products like disaccharides (two sugars) or oligosaccharides (a few sugars), but those are not the ultimate products of full hydrolysis. For example, starch would yield glucose units; lactose yields glucose and galactose; sucrose yields glucose and fructose.