Neon has 8 electrons in its outer shell. does it need to bond? why or why not?

Neon does not need to bond.

An atom will form a bond because it wants to have the noble gas configuration. Atoms that have the noble gas configuration have a full outer shell  of electrons. Neon is in period 2 of the periodic table meaning it's outer shell holds a maximum of eight electrons. The electronic configuration of neon is or simply 2,8. The second energy level is full in neon, which is a stable configuration. Because neon has a full and stable outer shell, it does not need to bond .