Answer
$1s^2 2s^2 2p^2$
Work Step by Step
We know that the carbon atom has six electrons in its outermost shell in the ground state. The first 2 electrons reside in the 1s shell and the other 4 electrons are in 2s and 2p subshells. Thus the electronic configuration of carbon in the ground state is given as
$1s^2 2s^2 2p^2$
