Inheritance
Inheritance is a fundamental object-oriented programming (OOP) concept where a new class (child or derived class) is created from an existing class (parent or base class), inheriting its properties and methods. It enables code reusability and establishes hierarchical relationships between classes, allowing child classes to extend or override parent functionality. This mechanism supports polymorphism and encapsulation, forming one of the four main pillars of OOP alongside abstraction, encapsulation, and polymorphism.
Developers should learn inheritance to build modular, maintainable, and scalable software by reducing code duplication and promoting a clear class hierarchy. It is essential in scenarios like modeling real-world relationships (e.g., a 'Vehicle' class with subclasses like 'Car' and 'Bike'), implementing shared functionality across components, and leveraging polymorphism for flexible code design. Inheritance is widely used in languages like Java, C++, and Python for frameworks, libraries, and enterprise applications.