What is an Exception in Java?

An exception in Java is an unexpected event or error that happens while a program is running, which interrupts the normal flow of the program.

It’s Java’s way of saying:

“Something went wrong, but I can handle it gracefully without crashing the whole program.”

🧠 Example:

int a = 10;
int b = 0;
int result = a / b;   // ❌ This will cause an exception
System.out.println(result);

👉 Here, a / b will cause an ArithmeticException because you can’t divide by zero.

Without handling this, your program will crash.