What is the maximum number of codes that a 16-bit Unicode can represent?

A 16-bit Unicode can represent a maximum of 2^16 different codes. This is because the bit depth directly determines the number of possible combinations. For 16 bits, the calculations go as follows:

2^16 = 65,536

This means that a 16-bit Unicode can encode 65,536 different character representations, covering a wide range of characters, symbols, and control codes necessary for encoding text in various languages and formats. The correct answer highlights the importance of understanding binary numbers and their conversion to decimal to evaluate the capacity of character encoding systems like Unicode effectively.