To find the area of a composite figure, you should:

• A. Decompose the figure into simpler shapes and sum their areas.
• B. Measure the outer boundary and square it.
• C. Multiply all side lengths together.
• D. Subtract the area of holes from the perimeter.

Answer: (A)

To find the area of a composite figure, break it into simpler shapes and add their areas. This works because you can treat each piece as one of the basic shapes you know how to measure, then combine them to get the whole. For example, if a figure is like a rectangle with a smaller rectangle cut out, you can think of it as two separate rectangles and add the area of the larger part, then subtract the area of the hole. The key is that area adds up across non-overlapping pieces.

Options that aren’t about summing areas of parts don’t fit. Squaring the outer boundary isn’t a valid area method, and multiplying all side lengths only works for a rectangle, not for general composite shapes. Subtracting the area of holes from the perimeter uses the wrong quantity (perimeter instead of area) and doesn’t give you the total area of the shape.