What is a ^b ^c ?

vittalgmat wrote:How is a ^b ^c interpreted?

(a^b)^c OR a ^(b^c) ?

More generally how can I solve something like a^b^c^d^e ?

You don't often see expressions written this way, but if there are no brackets, then a^b^c means a^(b^c), and not (a^b)^c. So, if you did see something like 3^2^5, that means 3^32, and not 3^10. Of course, far more often you will have brackets in expressions like this - you're much more likely to see, or to need to work with, (3^2)^5 on your test.

I'd wager a lot of money you will not see something like a^b^c^d^e on your test, but if you did, there's not much you could do with that, if you have letters in the expression. If you saw something with numbers like:

2^2^2^2^2

you could work out the value of that expression as follows (start from the top and work backwards) :

2^2^2^2^2 = 2^(2^(2^(2^2))) = 2^(2^(2^4)) = 2^(2^16) = 2^65536

which helps to illustrate why you're not going to see something quite this complicated on the test - the answer will be too awkward to work with.