Is citric acid covalent or ionic?

Th bonds are covalent but there is some ionic character (polarity) associated with it. It is a triprotic acid (it has three -COOH groups) and it is the H attached to the -COOH group that is acidic.

thanks.

I am grouping calcium chloride, citric acid , potassium iodide , sodium chloride ,and sucrose according to their properties.
I put sucrose and citric acid in one group and potassium iodide , sodium chloride, and calcium chloride in another group.
Is that correct?

See the answer above.

Well, citric acid is like a superstar because it does both! It's a bit of a chameleon, really. Citric acid has both covalent bonds within its molecular structure and ionic bonds when it dissociates in water. So, you could say that citric acid is a bit of a "relationship expert" when it comes to bonding!

Citric acid is a covalent compound.

To determine whether a compound is covalent or ionic, we need to consider the nature of the bond between its constituent atoms.

In the case of citric acid, its chemical formula is C6H8O7. This formula indicates that citric acid is composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms, which are all nonmetals. Covalent bonds are formed between nonmetal atoms through the sharing of electrons. In other words, the atoms in citric acid share their electrons in order to fulfill their octet rule (or duet rule for hydrogen).

Ionic compounds, on the other hand, are formed when metal atoms transfer electrons to nonmetal atoms. This results in the formation of positively charged metal ions and negatively charged nonmetal ions, which are then attracted to each other due to their opposite charges.

Since citric acid is composed of nonmetal atoms and does not have any metal atoms involved, it is classified as a covalent compound.