How many mRNA nucleotides form a codon

The nucleotide triplet that encodes an amino acid is called a codon. Each group of three nucleotides encodes one amino acid. Since there are 64 combinations of 4 nucleotides taken three at a time and only 20 amino acids, the code is degenerate (more than one codon per amino acid, in most cases).

Three nucleotides make a codon