The Reflection API in Java is a powerful feature that allows developers to inspect and manipulate the runtime behavior of applications. It enables the examination of classes, interfaces, fields, and methods at runtime without needing to know their names at compile time. This capability is particularly useful for tasks such as creating instances of classes, invoking methods, and accessing private members, which would otherwise be restricted ¹³⁴.

However, it’s important to note that using reflection can lead to performance issues. Since reflection involves dynamically resolved types, certain optimizations performed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) cannot be applied. As a result, reflective operations tend to be slower than their non-reflective counterparts. Therefore, reflection should be used judiciously, particularly in performance-sensitive applications ¹³.

The Reflection API is part of the java.lang.reflect package, which includes key classes such as Class, Field, Method, and Constructor. These classes provide the necessary tools to analyze and manipulate class-related information dynamically ⁴⁵.