What are the four primary programming paradigms?

The four primary programming paradigms are procedural, object-oriented, functional, and logical programming.

Procedural programming focuses on writing sequences of instructions to execute tasks, allowing for structured control flows and code organization through procedures or functions. Object-oriented programming emphasizes the use of objects, encapsulating data and behavior together, promoting reuse and modular design through concepts like inheritance and polymorphism. Functional programming treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing state and mutable data, enabling a more declarative style of coding. Logical programming is based on formal logic, where you define facts and rules, and the program derives conclusions from those.

Understanding these paradigms is crucial for developers, as they provide distinct methods of structuring and approaching problems, thereby influencing how software is designed, implemented, and maintained.