Here fork() is called 3 times through the loop from i=1 to 3 . each time * gets printed .
So, total number of process created :
(21 - 1 ) + 1 =1 + 1 = 2 .. at first level
( 22 - 1) + 1 = 3+1 = 4 ... at 2nd level
(23-1)+1 =7 + 1 = 8 ... at 3rd level
so total process created 2+4+8 = 14