What is oxygen’s ground-state electron configuration?

The ground-state electron configuration of oxygen is one s two, two s two, two p four.

Think of an atom like a set of tiny rooms where electrons live, and each room has a limit on how many can stay there. The first room, called one s, holds two electrons, then the second room called two s also holds two, and the next set of three two p rooms together can hold up to six but oxygen only needs four of them. So after filling one s and two s with two electrons each, the remaining four go into the two p rooms, which we write as two p four to show there are four electrons in those p orbitals.

Students often try to pack electrons into the two p rooms unevenly or forget Hund’s rule that says put one electron in each p room before pairing them, and that can lead to the wrong arrangement; remember to give each p orbital one electron first. Another common mistake is skipping the two s filling and trying to put electrons directly into two p, which violates the filling order; follow the one s, two s, then two p sequence. Finally, some people write the notation with incorrect spacing or numbers, so make sure to write the subshell labels and counts clearly as one s two, two s two, two p four.

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Oxygen Ground-State Electron Configuration

1. Think of atoms as rooms
2. One s holds 2 electrons
3. Two s holds 2 electrons
4. Two p can hold 6 electrons
5. Oxygen places 4 electrons in 2p

Common Mistakes in Oxygen Electron Configuration

1. Ignoring Hund’s rule for p orbitals
2. Skipping two s before two p
3. Writing notation with incorrect spacing

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