Reflection and Annotations

The ability of a Java program to analyze and manipulate its runtime behavior, particularly the internal structure of classes, methods, and fields.

Metadata in Java that provides information to the compiler or runtime without affecting the program semantics, often designated with the '@' symbol.

An instance of java.lang.Class representing a loaded class in Java, which can be used to inspect its members at runtime.

Annotations that define how other annotations should be treated, such as @Retention and @Target.

The slower performance of reflective calls compared to direct access due to runtime type checking.