Problem: Classify the following compounds as having covalent or ionic bonds:barium fluoride, aluminum carbide, magnesium chloride, dinitrogen monoxide, carbon tetrachloride, rubidium oxide

We’re being asked to classify the following compounds as having covalent or ionic bonds.

Recall that:

• A covalent bond is formed by the sharing of electrons by two non-metals in a covalent compound,
• An ionic bond is formed by the electron transfer from a metal to a non-metal (or cation and anion)  in an ionic compound..

To do that, we simply need to determine if the first element is a metal or non-metal based on the Periodic table.