What programming concept involves hiding the internal state of an object?

The concept that involves hiding the internal state of an object is encapsulation. Encapsulation is a fundamental principle in object-oriented programming that restricts access to certain components of an object and bundles the data (attributes) and methods (functions) that operate on the data into a single unit or class. This means that an object's internal state is kept private, preventing external code from directly altering it. Instead, access to the internal state is controlled through public methods, also known as "getters" and "setters," which provide a way to interact with the data without revealing its complexities.

This protective mechanism ensures that users of the class can interact with it through a well-defined interface, promoting modularity and reducing the risk of unintended interference or bugs. By controlling how data is accessed and modified, encapsulation enables a more secure and maintainable codebase.

The other concepts listed—abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism—serve different purposes within object-oriented design. Abstraction focuses on simplifying complexity by exposing only the essential features of a system while hiding the irrelevant details. Inheritance allows one class to derive characteristics from another, facilitating code reuse. Polymorphism enables methods to perform different functions based on the object that invokes them, allowing for flexibility in programming