What is the difference between primitive and reference types?

Primitive types store the actual value of the variable, while reference types store a reference (address) to an object in memory.

Primitive types:

• byte
• short
• int
• long
• float
• double
• boolean
• char

Reference types:

• Classes (String, user-defined classes, etc.)
• Interfaces
• Arrays

Key differences:

Attribute	Primitive types	Reference types
Store value	Directly in the variable	In the heap, variable stores a reference
Size	Fixed and known	Depends on the object's content
Default value	0, 0.0, false, '\u0000'	null
Inheritance	No	Yes
Methods	No	Yes