What are the two types of chemical bonding?

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Chemical bonds come in two main categories: ionic bonds and covalent bonds. Ionic bonds form when electrons are transferred from one atom to another, producing ions that attract each other due to opposite charges. This usually happens between metals and nonmetals with a large difference in electronegativity. Covalent bonds form when atoms share electrons to fill their outer shells; sharing can be equal (nonpolar covalent) or unequal (polar covalent) depending on how strongly each atom holds the electrons. Other bonding types exist—metallic bonds in metals and hydrogen bonding as a strong intermolecular attraction—but they aren’t the two primary categories. So the pair that represents the two fundamental bond types is covalent and ionic.