Past exam of the Probability, statistics and options II course of the University of Oxford / 2009 / A / A2 / b / Solution

The finite field $K$ is a finite-dimensional vector space over its prime subfield $F$ of size $p$. A basis has some positive length $n$, and every element is uniquely specified by $n$ coefficients in $F$. There are $p$ choices per coefficient, so $\boxed{|K|=p^n}$ and $[K:F]=n$.