```html

Understanding Service Contracts in WCF

A service contract in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) defines the operations that a service provides. It specifies the methods that can be called by clients to interact with the service. The purpose of a service contract is to define the interface of the service and establish the communication protocol between the service and its clients.

In WCF, a service contract is defined using the [ServiceContract] attribute in the code. This attribute is applied to an interface that declares the operations that the service will expose. The methods within the interface are decorated with the [OperationContract] attribute to indicate that they are service operations.

By defining a service contract, developers can ensure that their services are interoperable and can communicate with clients that may be built using different technologies. It provides a clear definition of the service's capabilities and allows for easy integration with various client applications.

```