CertiPort Software Development Practice Exam 2025 - Free Software Development Practice Questions and Study Guide

The process of changing a method in a derived class from its base class is called overriding. When a method in a base class is defined with the same name, return type, and parameters in a derived class, it is said to override the base class method. This allows the derived class to provide a specific implementation of a method that is already defined in the base class, enabling dynamic method dispatch at runtime.

Overriding is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming as it supports polymorphism, allowing for methods to behave differently depending on the object type that invokes them. This enhances flexibility and code reuse, allowing developers to modify or extend the base functionality when creating new classes derived from existing ones.

In contrast, encapsulation refers to bundling data and methods that operate on that data within one unit, typically a class, thereby restricting direct access to some of the object's components. Shadowing involves defining a new variable in a derived class that has the same name as one in the base class, which can lead to confusion in how the data is referenced. Polymorphism is a broader concept that allows methods to be invoked on objects of different classes through a common interface, but it is the overriding that specifically pertains to changing the implementation of methods in derived classes.