Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / ib / Paper 2 / 10F / a / Solution

Group the matrix entries by columns. Each column of $BA$ is $B$ times the corresponding column of $A$. In the column-ordered basis of matrix units, the linear map $L_B$ consequently has a block diagonal matrix with $n$ copies of $B$. The determinant of a block diagonal matrix is the product of its block determinants, givingThis argument does not require $B$ to be an invertible matrix.