Now recall that the bond order can determine how many bonds form between two elements in a compound. And if we have a visual representation of our molecule, we can look at the connections between two elements and simply determine the bond order from that. So if we look at a molecule and we see a single bond between two elements, that means the bond order between them would be one.

If we see a double bond between two elements, then their bond order would be two. So if I gave you for example here I give you carbon triple bonded to nitrogen. We see a triple bond there, so the bond order would simply be 3.

So again, we can calculate bond order by setting up a molecular orbital diagram and then figuring out the number of bonding and antibonding electrons. Or if they give you the actual Lewis dot structure of a molecule, you can look at the bond between the two elements and simply say what the bond order is from that as well.