Which term describes the act of shielding one item from another item?

• A. Abstraction
• B. Encapsulation
• C. Inheritance
• D. Encryption

Answer: (B)

Encapsulation is the practice of keeping an object's internal state private and exposing a controlled interface. By making fields private and providing public methods to interact with them, you shield the internal representation from other parts of the program. This protects the object from external interference and lets its implementation change without breaking code that uses it. For example, a class with a private balance and public deposit or withdraw methods demonstrates shielding of internal data from direct access. Abstraction focuses on simplifying interfaces to hide complexity, not specifically shielding one item from another. Inheritance relates to creating new types by deriving from existing ones, not about hiding internal details. Encryption escapes data into a secure form for protection, which is about security of data rather than the structural shielding of one object from another.