Factors: Beauty of the number 1001. This number is not prime, is a product of three distinct primes and does wonderful things to three-digit numbers when multiplied to them.
To start with ‘abcabc’ = ‘abc’ * 1001 or abc * 7 * 11 * 13 (This is a critical idea to remember).
‘abc’ has only two factors. Or, ‘abc’ has to be prime. Only a prime number can have exactly two factors. (This is in fact the definition of a prime number)
So, ‘abcabc’ is a number like 101101 or 103103.
’abcabc’ can be broken as ‘abc’ * 7 * 11 * 13. Or, a p * 7 * 11 * 13 where p is a prime.
As we have already seen, any number of the form paqbrc will have (a + 1) (b + 1) (c + 1) factors, where p, q, r are prime.
So, p * 7 * 11 * 13 will have = (1 + 1) * (1 + 1) * (1 + 1) * (1 + 1) = 16 factors
The question is "How many factors does the 6-digit number ‘abcabc’ have?"
Hence the answer is 16 factors.
Choice A is the correct answer.