How many dots do you see?!

At first glance, this puzzle looks incredibly simple.

You see a sheet of paper with nine large dots arranged in a neat 3×3 pattern, with a question at the top:
“How many dots do you see!?”

Most people immediately answer 9. After all, there are clearly nine black dots visible on the page.

But the challenge is not asking how many large dots are in the grid. It is asking a much broader question:
How many dots do you see?

Take another look before reading further. Many people miss hidden dots because they focus only on the obvious ones.