Element "E" belongs to the period 4 and group 16 of the periodic table. The valence shell electron configuration of the element, which is just above "E" in the group is

Solution

Chemistry ma’am · 3 steps

E is selenium, so the element just above it is sulphur in period 3. Its valence shell is the third shell.

1. Identify E. Group 16 is the oxygen family: O, S, Se, Te, Po. Period 4 of this group is selenium, Se, with valence shell 4s² 4p⁴.
2. One step up. Moving up a group lowers the period number by one. The element just above Se is sulphur, S, in period 3 (atomic number 16).

   Option	Valence shell	Period	Element
   (a)	3s² 3p⁴	3	S, just above E
   (b)	3d¹⁰ 4s² 4p⁴	4	Se, that is E itself
   (c)	4d¹⁰ 5s² 5p⁴	5	Te, just below E
   (d)	2s² 2p⁴	2	O, two places above E

3. So. Sulphur is [Ne] 3s² 3p⁴, so its valence shell configuration is 3s² 3p⁴, option (a).

The idea to keep. For a p-block element, the period number is the valence shell number and the group number minus 10 is the count of valence electrons. Moving up one place lowers the shell by one.

Answer from the NTA final answer key. Solution by PrepWiser.