What are the end products of the complete combustion of glucose?

The complete combustion of glucose, which produces CO₂ and H₂O as end products, yields energy most of which is given out as heat. If this energy is to be useful to the cell, it should be able to utilize it to synthesize other molecules that the cell requires. The strategy that the plant cell uses is to catabolize the glucose molecule in such a way that not all the liberated energy goes out as heat. The key is to oxidase glucose not in one step but in several small steps enabling some steps to be just large enough such that the energy released can be coupled to ATP synthesis. How this is done is, essentially, the story of respiration