Which term refers to hiding internal state and requiring interaction through an object's methods?

• A. Encapsulation
• B. Abstraction
• C. Information Hiding
• D. Inheritance

Answer: (C)

This describes information hiding, a practice where an object's internal state is kept private and can only be accessed or modified through its public methods. By exposing a controlled interface, the implementation details stay hidden, which helps preserve invariants, enforce validation, and prevent unintended interference from outside code. Encapsulation is the mechanism that makes this possible—bundling data and methods together and restricting direct access to the internal representation. Abstraction is about presenting essential features while omitting details, but it doesn’t necessarily imply hiding the internal state. Inheritance is about creating new classes from existing ones to reuse behavior, not about hiding state.