Associate Software Engineer Interview Question: Explaining Object-Oriented Programming

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that revolves around the concept of "objects" which encapsulate data and behavior. The principles of OOP include inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, and abstraction.

An example of how I have applied these principles in a previous project is by creating a car rental system. In this project, I defined a base class called "Vehicle" which contained common attributes and methods for all types of vehicles. I then created subclasses such as "Car", "Truck", and "SUV" which inherited from the Vehicle class.

This hierarchy allowed me to efficiently manage different types of vehicles and their specific attributes and behaviors. Encapsulation was achieved by hiding the internal implementation details of each class and only exposing necessary methods and properties. Polymorphism was exhibited through the ability to treat different types of vehicles interchangeably, such as calculating the rental cost based on the vehicle type.

Overall, leveraging the principles of OOP enabled me to create a modular, flexible, and maintainable car rental system that can easily accommodate future changes and additions.